Watford Scrape Win Against Brentford

I give a report on the match where Brentford looked strong and deserved something from it.

On a night where Brentford put in a solid performance Watford managed to scrape through with the 3 points but that does not tell the whole story. I believe more a lot of the match showed that Brentford were the better team but as has been the story of our season so far, we did not take chances. I do not know how many times I will have to write about that but I hope it ends pretty soon as we need to start taking chances when they come to us. Brentford dominated with 55% possession and although did not win looked comfortable on the ball.

In the early stages Watford looked very edgy and gave away 3 fouls in quick succession. However as the game progressed our defenders put in superb efforts to deny Watford a goal early on. With Tarkowski and Craig putting in some excellent blocks to prevent Munari and Ighalo from scoring. Despite Brentford looking confident at the start Watford soon came into the game and created a lot of chances in the middle part of the first half but still our defenders who although we lost played probably the best football so far this season. Our defence looked organised and able to cope with Watford`s attacks.

As half time got closer Jonathan Douglas and Jota both had threatening shots towards goal but were denied by some great keeping. Up until the goal at 42 minutes Alan Judge had played exceptionally and deserved a goal. He had passed well and nearly set up an assist for Douglas who was also great on the night. The 42nd minute was the turning point in the game. James Tarkowski made his first mistake of the match after he fouled Ighalo in the box and a penalty was awarded. Although David Button made an extraordinary save Watford scored on the rebound and it was 1-0.

Despite us going into half time losing there seemed to be a lot of positives to take from our performance so far.

Brentford started the second half very brightly and some half time words from Warbs must have helped as we seemed to gain momentum and were posing a much bigger threat. Jake Bidwell and Alan McCormack were making some excellent runs into the centre of the park and linked up well with Judge and Odubajo. The clock turned into the 57th minute and Alan Judge had just picked up the ball and made a strong run towards goal, he saw Douglas and played and exquisite through ball to Douglas who powered the ball into the bottom left corner. An excellent goal by our two best players on the night.

However the dreams of a result away at Watford were not meant to be and 13 minutes later Watford struck again. This time Vydra had a shot from outside the box to the top right hand corner. In the second half although we started brightly our defence seemed to fall short of the mark they set in the first half and they were to blame for the goal. The substitution of bringing young star Pritchard onto the pitch did not work and although Brentford had some good last ditch attempts we could not find that second goal.

Overall there are a lot of positives to take from the match despite us losing and I think the future is bright for Brentford. Our defence seems much more organised and our attack is still looking good.

Please comment your thoughts on the game and how you think Brentford played. Could we do better? How?