Troy Deeney's penalty and Odion Ighalo's late strike have given Watford a 2-0 victory over Norwich City in the clash between two promoted Premier League sides at Vicarage Road.
The match started in tentative fashion with both teams feeling each other out in high wind in the opening stages, and Robbie Brady's missed header and Ben Watson's deflected shot were the only half chances in the first quarter of the game.
However, the Hornets began to exercise some influence on the match as the first half wore on, and they were handed a golden opportunity to find a breakthrouh shortly before the half-hour mark.
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Etienne Capoue forced Alexander Tettey into a mistake in the penalty area, and the Norwich midfielder fouled Ighalo in his attempt to recover, leaving Deeney to smash home from the penalty spot to score for the fourth match running.
Watford were unlucky not to double their advantage before the break as Ighalo was ruled to be marginally offside when he fired home from Allan Nyom's header across goal, but they were enjoying all of the attacking possession and Declan Rudd denied Ighalo after the striker had beaten Ryan Bennett all ends up.
Brady should have done better when he dragged wide from the edge of the box within two minutes of the restart before Ighalo was denied by Rudd on three occasions as both sides sought the crucial second goal of the game in the early stages of the second half.
Rudd continued to win the personal battle between himself and Ighalo as he turned the striker's shot away after Sebastian Bassong had been bullied off the ball, but Deeney's strike partner finally found his goal in injury time to seal the points.
Deeney slipped Ighalo through on goal again, and the Nigerian beat the goalkeeper to ensure a second consecutive win for Watford.
Tom Nightingale
