Referee:Andy Davies    Attendance:9,265

clips of Jon Marks BBC 3CR commentary   Goals:  1   2

RELIVE – Reading vs Watford: Isaac Success and Domingos Quina send Hornets through in Carabao Cup

Isaac Success and Domingos Quina goals send Watford to Carabao Cup victory over Reading

Watford’s Javi Gracia praises Nathaniel Chalobah and Stefano Okaka after Carabao Cup win over Reading

Reading vs Watford ratings: Domingos Quina and Ben Wilmot impress in Carabao Cup win

Isaac Success: Watford forward pleased with Carabao Cup contribution

Domingos Quina: Debut strike leaves Watford youngster hungry for more

Domingos Quina scored a stunning goal on his Watford debut help them progress to the Carabao Cup third round at the expense of Championship side Reading.

Watford – fourth in the Premier League after winning their opening three games – made 11 changes from the side that defeated Crystal Palace 2-1 at Vicarage Road on Sunday.

There are certain prerequisites when it comes to the early stages of the Rumbelows Cup.  Some of these are met in sunny Berkshire tonight…  a half-empty stadium (albeit a respectable enough 2500 make the short journey from Hertfordshire), much-changed starting line-ups (eleven changes for the Golden Boys in the green away kit’s first outing).  Check, check.

Team news was that Gracia had made 11 changes with debuts for Navarro, Masina, Wilmot and Quina and the return of Chalobah, so the starting line-up was Gomes; Navarro, Mariappa, Prödl, Masina; Femenía, Chalobah, Wilmot, Quina, Sema; Success.  I have to say that looked like a pretty decent team.  Reading had also made 8 changes, but the main Watford connection with the opposition was in the dug out in the person of Sir Nigel Gibbs.

Watford’s record in this competition is infamous. In the past ten seasons we’ve been knocked out by lower league opposition a total of eight times. So it’s no wonder I was surprised when Watford won comfortably away at Reading on Wednesday evening.

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Diego Fabbrini scored a late goal to rescue a draw for Watford at Reading. The home side took the lead through Adam Le Fondre’s powerful left-footed strike and Jem Karacan bundled in from a set-piece to add a second. Watford’s Marco Faraoni scored a header but Karacan slotted in a Le Fondre knock down to restore a two-goal lead. Troy Deeney converted a penalty for the visitors after Danny Guthrie’s foul on substitute Fabbrini, who prodded home in the 89th minute.

It’s easy to paint the game as being of two halves.  Actually, for the first fifteen minutes or so of the second period we looked perhaps even less likely to get back into the game…  possession was suddenly being ceded cheaply as we struggled to up the pace and looked for ambitious passes.  A recurring theme under Gianfranco Zola however has been that of continuous improvement; we saw it through much of last season, and within a game he’s proven himself capable of changing the lie of the land to our benefit.  It helps to have such quality on the bench of course, and we’ll get to that.  But no small credit is due to the manager here for a bold substitution that changed our shape subtly and gave Reading something else to think about.  Reading fans will naturally focus on the contrast in their own team’s performance vs earlier in the game, but the R’s didn’t just “lose it”.  Much of the game is psychological of course and as things started to run for us belief grew in our camp whilst doubts entered Reading minds on and off the pitch.  Everyone who’s watched a football match has seen that before.  But something had to start that ball rolling, something had to change the game and give us an edge.  Sometimes it’s a lucky break, or a piece of individual skill…