Watford 1 - 4 HuddersfieldAaron Mooy strikes twice as ruthless Huddersfield shock Watford
Home team scorersAbdoulaye Doucoure 68
Away team scorersElias Kachunga 6
Aaron Mooy 23
Laurent Depoitre 50
Aaron Mooy 89 Pen
After the drought, the deluge. It had been 738 minutes since Huddersfield Town last found the back of the net away from home, a run that stretched back to the opening day of the season, but sometimes it only takes one goal for confidence to return and David Wagner’s players never looked back after Elias Kachunga finally stopped the rot at Vicarage Road.
For Huddersfield, this was proof that football will always reward teams who refuse to stop trying. They have not had this much fun on their travels since taking Crystal Palace apart on a sunny August afternoon. They have never stopped believing, even as they slipped worryingly towards the bottom three, and Kachunga’s strike was followed by two for Aaron Mooy and one for the excellent Laurent Depoitre.
Watford were fortunate that Huddersfield restricted themselves to four. Marco Silva’s team were appalling, their fate sealed by Troy Deeney’s brainless red card in the first half, and are without a win in five matches.
Watford have the worst defensive record in the top half, with 33 goals conceded in 18 matches, and Huddersfield’s impressive boldness was designed to press against those vulnerabilities. The visitors did not begin like a side experiencing a barren run on the road and it spoke volumes for their dominance that Silva was forced into an early tactical alteration, replacing Adrian Mariappa with Roberto Pereyra and switching from a 3-4-3 system to 4-2-3-1 in the 29th minute.
Huddersfield had been ruthless in the way they capitalised on Watford’s listlessness, although it was tempting to wonder if the game would have been more even if Kachunga’s goal in the sixth minute had been disallowed for offside. Perhaps Wagner’s side deserved some luck after an energetic start, though. Sensing vulnerability in Silva’s back three, they were quick to find space down the channels and won an early corner when the persistent Kachunga caused problems for Heurelho Gomes and Christian Kabasele.
Watford were dozing. Huddersfield pinned them back, Mooy stabbed a deep ball to the far post from the left and Quaner muscled himself into a shooting position. Gomes diverted the forward’s shot into Kachunga’s path and he was a yard out when he ended his team’s long wait for an away goal. The two attackers both looked offside, but the flag stayed down despite Watford’s appeals and the celebrations in the away end were long and loud.
One moment of good fortune had a transformative effect on Huddersfield’s attack and they continued to unsettle Watford, even after Kachunga went off with an injury. There was plenty of time for Silva’s players to respond to falling behind, but they created little of note and gifted their opponents a second goal with more awful defending. Nobody in yellow tracked Quaner and his cross from the right found Mooy, who bundled the ball past Gomes from close range.
Unable to believe what he was witnessing, Silva responded by introducing Pereyra. Yet the Argentinian had only been on the pitch for a couple of minutes when Deeney self-destructed, ending his team’s hopes of a revival with a reckless tackle from behind on Quaner. Michael Oliver sprinted across to show the striker a red card.
Watford’s Troy Deeney is shown a red card by referee Michael Oliver. Photograph: Peter Cziborra/Action Images via Reuters
Deeney could have no complaints and Huddersfield deepened the suffering of Watford’s 10 men early in the second half. They had already spurned a couple of chances before Depoitre showed his team-mates how to finish, lashing an angled drive past Gomes as José Holebas lay on the turf with a facial injury.
Vicarage Road was an angry place, although the mood changed when Jonathan Hogg caught Richarlison late and received a second yellow card. Watford discovered some urgency and Abdoulaye Doucouré belatedly made a game of it when he left Jonas Lössl rooted to the spot with a magnificent shot from 25 yards.
Huddersfield, however, would not be denied, ending Watford’s fightback when Doucouré sloppily fouled Depoitre. Mooy rammed the penalty past Gomes to show that all that shooting practice has paid off.
Guardian
