Stoke City vs Watford. Premier League.
Bet365 StadiumAttendance27,587.
Saturday 24 October 2015 19:14, UK
Troy Deeney ended his long wait for a Premier League goal as Watford ruined Mark Hughes' 100th game in charge of Stoke with a 2-0 win at the Britannia Stadium.
Deeney - a prolific scorer for the Vicarage Road side as they won promotion from the Championship last season - broke the deadlock shortly before half-time to end a run of 857 minutes of top-flight football without a goal before Almen Abdi sealed the away success.
The results sees Watford climb to 13th and prevents Stoke from enjoying their best points return from the opening 10 games of a Premier League campaign.
Stoke dominated much of the first half without making many chances but even so, Hughes will have wondered how his side trailed at the break.
Watford began brightly without posing much of a threat themselves and as time went on, it seemed inevitable that the hosts would take the lead.
Charlie Adam was their most dangerous outlet and he fired an early warning as he drilled low past the post after collecting the ball from Xherdan Shaqiri.
Stoke lost Geoff Cameron to a thigh injury soon after but it didn't seem to interrupt their momentum as he was replaced by Marc Wilson.
Adam went close again after Watford made a hash of clearing their lines and his well-hit half volley needed a deflection to take it behind and away from goal.
Hughes' men should have gone in front just before the half-hour mark through Marko Arnautovic, who will undoubtedly have gone into the interval ruing his miss.
The Austrian nodded a straightforward header over the bar after Shaqiri centred for him following decent build-up play - and that was a clear turning point.
Suddenly Watford burst into life and having barely gone upfield, they hit the woodwork twice in the space of 10 seconds.
Ikechi Anya did well to cross from the byline and Odion Ighalo's header was firm but off the stanchion.
Ighalo recovered to feed to Abdi and he eventually turned the ball on to Deeney but he leaned back too much as he opened up to shoot and he struck the face of the bar.
Just when it seemed as though his drought was to continue, the visitors went ahead with a couple of minutes of the first half remaining.
Deeney received the ball 20 yards out and he took a touch to bring himself into a more central area before side-footing past Jack Butland with a fine, low finish inside the near post.
His relief was tangible as he wheeled away in celebration after finally bringing his long wait for a top-flight goal to an end following 21 in all competitions last season.
Stoke tried to keep pushing after the restart but frustration quickly set in as they found it hard to make openings.
Shaquiri sent a lazy effort high and wide and Heurelho Gomes had to adjust well to keep an Adam corner out before the Scot also shot over.
In response, Ighalo was denied a penalty but was undeterred as he fired a rasping volley goalwards only to see it blocked when it was heading in.
With the game delicately poised with quarter of it remaining, Watford killed off Stoke with a ruthless finish.
Wilson was far too slack coming out of defence and Ighalo was able to dispossess him before teeing up Abdi, who hammered home from the edge of the area to the delight of away fans.
Etienne Capoue could have added a third but the fact he didn't will have been inconsequential to the near 3,000 supporters who travelled north.
They had seen their team record a fine victory and Flores' team are providing to be a competitive addition to the division at present.
Charlie Nicholas' Soccer Saturday verdict
"We keep saying Watford, for 60-65 minutes, are nearly always in it and maybe they just run out of ideas because further forward we think the front two are so isolated that the rest can't get up and support them. Today it was different because, for 20 minutes they didn't really do very much but all of a sudden there was great link-up play from Odion Ighalo and Troy Deeney.
"Stoke's play was full of errors in the second half. I thought their passing was awful against Swansea and it was exactly the same today. This team looks pretty average. There was just no fluency. Bojan did very little in the game and Xherdan Shaqiri showed little flashes. Watford have a well-balanced, big physical side."
Player ratings
Stoke: Butland 5; Johnson 6, Cameron 3, Wollscheid 5, Pieters 6; Shaqiri 5, Whelan 6, Bojan 6, Adam 7, Arnatovic 6; Joselu 5.
Subs: Wilson (4), Walters (3), Crouch (4).
Watford: Gomes 6; Nyom 6, Cathcart 7, Britos 6, Ake 7; Capoue 7, Watson 7; Abdi 6, Deeney 6, Anya 6; Ighalo 7.
Subs: (Behrami 3), (Paredes 3), (Guedioura 1).
Man of the match: Odion Ighalo
