LONDON: Watford roared back into the race for automatic promotion to the Premier League with a thrilling comeback from two goals down in a 3-2 win at Leeds United on Saturday.
Slavisa Jokanovic's side fell behind to Billy Sharp's early opener for Leeds at Elland Road and they looked in deep trouble after Rudy Austin added a second.
But Troy Deeney reduced the deficit shortly before the interval and Matej Vydra fired his ninth and 10th goals of the season to lift the third-placed Hornets within one point of second-placed Middlesbrough.
"In the end we won another strange game," Jokanovic said. "But we made some mistakes and gave them many presents. We have to control the situation a little bit better.
"I am not thinking about promotion. I have dreams, but it is not time for them."
Aitor Karanka's Middlesbrough slipped to a second defeat in their last three league games as Sheffield Wednesday struck twice early in the second half to secure a 2-0 win at Hillsborough through Atdhe Nuhiu's penalty and Will Keane's header.
Leaders Derby County also slipped up, losing 2-0 against Fulham to leave them with a two-point lead at the top.
Steve McClaren's side were beaten by first-half goals from Nikolay Bodurov and Cauley Woodrow at Craven Cottage.
"It's a long season and we have been playing at a high level for the majority of it, that is why we are where we are," McClaren said.
"But we came up against a Fulham team who looked at their league position and knew they needed a result."
Fourth-placed Bournemouth were unable to capitalise on their promotion rivals' defeats as they were held to a 0-0 draw by Blackburn Rovers after kick-off had been delayed 30 minutes due to traffic congestion.
Nottingham Forest are still unbeaten under new manager Dougie Freedman after a 3-0 win at Reading, where second-half goals from Ben Osborn, Matty Fryatt and Gary Gardner clinched a third straight league win.
Huddersfield Town manager Chris Powell made an unhappy first return to his former club Charlton Athletic, where goals from Johann Berg Gudmundsson and Tony Watt, who struck twice, gave the home side a comfortable 3-0 win.
Brentford defender James Tarkowski's own goal was enough to seal a 1-0 victory for Birmingham City at St Andrew's, while Wolves won 1-0 at Cardiff.
Zach Clough's strike clinched Bolton Wanderers a 1-0 home win against Brighton.
Kari Arnason headed a crucial 85th-minute goal for Rotherham United to seal a 2-1 home win against fellow strugglers Millwall after Danny Ward had cancelled out Martyn Woolford's opener for the visitors.
Rotherham are now six points clear of third-bottom Millwall in the battle to avoid relegation to the third tier and to make matters worse for the Lions some of their supporters were involved in crowd trouble after the final whistle.
Second-bottom Wigan Athletic, nine points from safety, clinched their first league win in 11 games as Bo-Kyung Kim and Harry Maguire both scored their first goals for the club in a 3-1 success at bottom-of-the-table Blackpool.
Comments
Comments are closed.