You Orns! Match Report
Stoke 0, Watford 4
The Slaven Bilic era at Watford got off to a golden start as the Hornets hammered stoke 4-0 at the Bet365 Stadium on a sensational Sunday afternoon in Staffordshire.
Watford dominated a very poor Stoke side, outhustling and outmanoeuvering their hosts. Confident and decisive, the Golden Boys were energetic, composed and precise in their passing and movement on the pitch, looking vastly different in demeanour and attitude than they had in their first ten Championship games.
The visitors wasted no time imposing themselves on Alex Neil’s Stoke side. With a 4-2-3-1 formation that saw man of the match Hassane Kamara back on his familiar left side, Watford took a 12th minute lead. Kamara’s sharp delivery found the marginally offside Ismaila Sarr in the middle of the box and his angled header past Stoke goalie Bursik found the back of the net. The Hornets should have doubled their lead minutes later but Sarr hit a post with a header. Ken Sema would follow suit with a well-struck shot minutes after that.
Stoke had a moment or two late in the first half but the referee’s whistle soon stopped any head of steam they hoped to gain.
The home side improved in the first ten minutes of the second half, far better than their woeful opening half showing, yet Watford should have been 2-0 up minutes into the restart. Centre half Francisco Sierralta headed just over the bar when it would have been easier to score. Still, his defending was laser sharp and judicious, as were the rest of the Watford back line throughout.
As Stoke began to ask questions of Watford, new head coach Bilic made the biggest move of the match in the 59th minute, substituting Yaser Asprilla for Imran Louza, returning after a long injury layoff. Louza redressed the balance in midfield back in Watford’s favour, restoring calm and solidity to the middle of the park. Five minutes later, Watford would add their crucial second goal courtesy of Sema, whose persistence paid off as he nudged home a loose ball that came off the ‘keeper.
Never content to rest on their laurels, Watford added a third in the 78th minute. Keinan Davis got a crisp pass across the pitch from Sarr and lashed home an incisive shot into the bottom left-hand corner of the Stoke net for his second goal in two games. The belief and self-esteem continued to grow in the Hornets side as they never let up in search of a fourth goal. Just six minutes after Davis scored and only 15 minutes after making his season debut, Louza assisted with a curled ball across the 18-yard-box that was met by substitute Vakoun Bayo, on the pitch barely a minute, to score his third Watford goal with his first touch of the game.
Watford kept searching for a fifth goal and Louza should have had it. The substitute had the goal gaping at his mercy but somehow rifled a shot barely wide of the left-hand post from ten yards. Louza couldn’t believe it.
But the final score was not only believable it was well-deserved, far from flattering for a scintillating, aggressive, determined Watford side. Watford move up to seventh.
(Photo: Watford players led by Keinan Davis, celebrate Sarr’s opening goal at Stoke on Sunday. Photo credit: Sky Sports)
Stoke (out of 10): Bursik 6, Wilmot 5, Flint 5, Fox 5, Laurent 5, Fosu-Henry 6, Baker 5, Smallbone 7, Sterling 6, Delap 6, Gayle 5.
Subs: Clarke 5, Campbell 6.
WATFORD (out of 10): Bachmann 7, Kamara 9, Sierralta 7, Kabasele 7, Choudhury 8, Kayembe 7, Asprilla 6, Sema 8, Sarr 7, Davis 8.
Subs: Louza 8, Bayo 7, Gosling N/A, Hungbo N/A.
Referee: Josh Smith 8.
Attendance: 19,905.
*Subscribe to the YOU ORNS WFC YouTube channel!*
Follow YOU ORNS WFC: Twitter and Instagram
Latest YOU ORNS! podcast episode (October 2, 2022) – subscribe!
Season 2, Episode 14 – Wonderful Watford Wallop The Potters On A Warm Sunday Afternoon In Stoke
youornswfc 