Middlesbrough vs Watford. Sky Bet Championship.
Riverside StadiumAttendance24,326.
Middlesbrough 0-1 Watford: Moussa Sissoko scores winner for Hornets
Report and free match highlights from the Sky Bet Championship match between Middlesbrough and Watford at the Riverside Stadium on Saturday; Moussa Sissoko steers Hornets back to winning ways at flailing Boro.
Saturday 15 February 2025 18:45, UK
Watford ended a run of five Championship games without a win with a hard-fought 1-0 success at Middlesbrough which piled further pressure on Michael Carrick.
Former Newcastle midfielder Moussa Sissoko headed in what proved to be the winner five minutes before half-time to secure what was just a second win since Boxing Day for Tom Cleverley's side.
The Hornets leapfrogged Boro into the top 10, who have now lost their last four Championship games and Carrick's side were booed off at half-time and full-time by the home supporters at the Riverside.
It was Middlesbrough who started the brighter of the two sides.
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Tommy Conway, who was back in the starting XI for the first time since suffering a hamstring injury on Boxing Day, had a penalty shout waved away and then stung the hands of Watford goalkeeper Egil Selvik after Daniel Barlaser won possession on the edge of the box.
Watford, after a slow and uncertain opening, grew in confidence and looked comfortable as they saw more of the ball.
They looked set to trouble home goalkeeper Mark Travers for the first time when Imran Louza set Yasser Larouci away but the ball bounced up and hit the advanced left-back on the hand.
Tom Dele-Bashiru, who scored in last week's 2-2 draw at Sunderland, then fired a shot over the crossbar from the edge of the box.
Morgan Whittaker was denied his first Boro goal since joining from Plymouth in January just after the half hour mark, and from Selvik's save Watford broke but Mamadou Doumbia turned Giorgi Chakvetadze's cross wide of Travers' post.
The visitors had a good chance to break the deadlock when Edo Kayembe fired wide from inside the box after Sissoko's cut-back.
But the opener from the captain soon followed as Sissoko escaped the attention of Neto Borges and met Louza's corner with a powerful header.
The goalscorer picked up an injury and had to be replaced at the break, with Tom Ince introduced.
Carrick also turned to his bench in search of a way back into the game and brought Delano Burgzorg on for Barlaser.
But it was Watford who initially looked the more likely to score the game's second goal and Chakvetadze was twice denied by Travers early in the second half.
Boro belatedly woke up and substitute Burgzorg brought three good saves out of Selvik before Rav van den Berg headed substitute Finn Azaz's corner off a post.
But they could not force an equaliser.
The managers
Middlesbrough's Michael Carrick:
"100 per cent (I believe I can turn it around). We have good players, we have a fantastic team, we're having a bad spell.
"I fully believe we can get out of it. There's a big difference between having your confidence hit and the ultimate belief.
"At the moment, we're in it, but we have to accept that. We'll all pull together and find a way through but it's a tough place to be. We'll all stick with each other.
"A lot of teams have bad spells. We don't want to go through it but it's part of the sport unfortunately. We don't like it but it doesn't mean we can't change it.
"I'm just gutted for the players, I feel for them so much. They were trying to do the right things but when it goes against you it goes against you.
"You can see we're fighting confidence at the minute and that's natural, things have gone against us. We didn't quite find the goal towards the end."
Watford's Tom Cleverley:
"We were challenged in the last 15, 20 minutes but it was no means backs to the wall and we should have been out of sight.
"You always smell when a crowd is a little bit edgy.
"They have a quality squad and they're demanding a lot of their players. They're not in their best moment and we thought we could play on that.
"We created that nervousness in the stadium and smelt the blood and went for the kill.
"I still feel like we can improve how we manage the end of the game but for 70 minutes we have to give massive credit to the players, they were outstanding."
