Southampton 2 - 0 WatfordShane Long and Dusan Tadic give Southampton vital win over Watford
Home team scorersShane Long 17
Dusan Tadic 73
Shane Long opens the scoring for Southampton in the first half of what proved to be a straightforward win.
This was more like the Southampton we have come to expect. After a dismal recent run, they are back to winning ways courtesy of a barnstorming performance against an off-colour Watford. Shane Long and Dusan Tadic struck in either half but the scoreline was not a fair reflection of their complete dominance.
It could easily have been five and Fraser Forster, between the posts for the first time in 10 months due to a knee injury, could not have enjoyed an easier return.
The slogan “We march on” is brandished across this ground but, on recent form, Southampton’s advancement has been sluggish at best. A run of one win from 10 in all competitions left the players low on confidence and the manager, Ronald Koeman, conceding beforehand that he was peering down the table, concerned about being dragged into a relegation battle.
Frustratingly for Koeman, Southampton have been the better team in many of those recent games only for profligate finishing and cheap defensive errors to prove costly. Notably the Dutchman continued with three centre-halves despite ditching that shape at half-time against Crystal Palace in the FA Cup defeat last Saturday. By now, though, we all know what to expect from Watford and perhaps Koeman had the clinical striker Odion Ighalo in mind when sticking with an additional central defender.
Tough to break down, lethal and direct in attack, Watford have played without fear all season and arrived with one of the best away records in the division. The visitors looked content to sit back throughout the opening exchanges but after falling behind early struggled to impose themselves and Ighalo was kept on a tight leash.
As in previous games Southampton started promisingly, but there was a crucial difference: they took the lead with their first clear opportunity. And what a move it was, too. Matt Targett, making his first league appearance since October, has found game time hard to come by but the left wing-back left an immediate impact by providing an exquisite cross for Long having been fed by Ryan Bertrand. The Republic of Ireland striker still had plenty of work to do, rising between Sebastian Prödl and Miguel Britos to direct a clinical header into the bottom right corner past Heurelho Gomes.
Four minutes later the advantage should have been doubled when Sadio Mané danced down the left, turned Prödl inside out and back again before shooting goalwards from the ‘D’. Gomes, however, got a firm hand to the shot and turned it round his left post for a corner. From the ensuing delivery the ball was recycled to Targett and his goalbound effort was deflected wide.
Watford were uncharacteristically slack in defence and should have been punished in the 36th minute when José Manuel Jurado played an astoundingly poor pass across the back towards Prödl. Mané was too quick for the Austria defender, nipping in ahead of him to steal possession only for a low shot to beat the advancing Gomes but not the woodwork.
Gomes also had to race off his line to take the ball from Mané’s feet from a tight angle and the away team were quite fortunate not to be dead and buried by the interval, only still in the game thanks to a succession of impressive saves from their keeper.
His duel with Mané was becoming the story of the match and two minutes into the second half they collided again when vying for a deflected Targett cross. Gomes came off worse, requiring several minutes’ attention to a head injury before being judged OK to continue. Mané got to the ball first but was denied by Prödl on the line.
Southampton continued to dominate but as time wore on without a second goal tension creeped in. The introduction of Ikechi Anya on the hour gave Watford another element in attack and his first act, an outswinger directed towards the penalty spot, almost saw Ighalo convert.
The hosts paid heed to that warning and in the 65th minute Steven Davis was denied by the offside flag when rifling past Gomes. Sixty seconds later Oriol Romeu shot hard and low only for the keeper to save once more, a Virgil van Dijk pullback from a Davis free-kick somehow evaded both a sliding Long and Mané, and the latter also shot wide after being teed up by Long.
Mané was replaced at that juncture by Tadic and the Serbian ensured the points with his first piece of action, composing himself between Prödl and Craig Cathcart before picking his spot just inside the area, leaving Gomes with no chance.
Guardian
