Goal: Because the game was played at 12.15pm we had to wait for the 3pm kick offs to finish before it was confirmed we’d been promoted. The players found out whilst on the coach going back to Watford.
Watford clinched promotion to the Premier League after they beat Brighton and other results went their way.
Middlesbrough slumped to a 4-3 defeat at Fulham and Norwich could only draw 1-1 at Rotherham, sealing Watford’s return to the top flight after an eight-year absence.
Watford’s lunchtime win on the south coast put them four points clear of the chasing pack thanks to Troy Deeney’s first-half goal and a stoppage time second from the substitute Matej Vydra.
Football is about waiting for moments that might never arrive, about playing them through in your imagination over and over, about being there to see if it happens…and then finding Matej Vydra taking what seems like an age to control the ball, threatening to let that moment slip away, and then sliding it calmly into the bottom corner before the whole world turns yellow and red and inside out and upside down.The Watford Observer produced a supplement marking the Hornets promotion which included several pictures from the game and the celebrations that followed.
Craig Cathcart’s stunning goal gave Watford a narrow victory over Birmingham as they moved top of the Championship and ensured automatic promotion is in their own hands.
The Hornets went into the game knowing a win would take them back into the automatic promotion places following Middlesbrough’s victory at Norwich on Friday.
We’ve not half had some games against this lot. Some will remember victory in the Cup in 1960… Cliff Holton helping the fourth division newly-christened Hornets to knock top-flight Blues out in front of 31,000 at the Vic. In 1984 perhaps the most impressive single result of our run to the Cup Final came at St Andrews; Ron Saunders’ aggressive side came into the game on the back of a twelve-match unbeaten run in the top flight and had the majority of a 40,000 crowd behind them. John Barnes ripped them to bits. In 1999 a play-off semi-final concluded with an epic penalty shoot out that resulted in our second trip to Wembley.
Troy Deeney became the first Watford player to score 20 goals in three successive seasons as Middlesbrough lost their place at the Championship summit.
Middlesbrough moved back to the top of the table with a 1-0 win over Wigan on Friday, but they were knocked off the summit within three days by Watford, who moved into pole position themselves before being usurped by Bournemouth and Norwich later on Easter Monday.
Watford actually grew stronger as the game went on, and could have won by a wider margin than two. Even more encouraging was the way they defended the threat of Patrick Bamford, one of the Championship’s in-form strikers, who barely got a sight of goal.
With his stilted English delivered in unwavering monotone, Slavisa Jokanovic – Watford’s fourth manager of the season – seems an unlikely inspiration but in these most pressured circumstances his side produced probably their most convincing display of the season.
Aitor Karanka was later to join the ranks of managers complaining about our strike threat as if it’s some kind of unfair advantage, like a twelfth player or a bribed referee.
