A Jay Bothroyd brace saw Cardiff come from two goals behind to draw with ten-man Watford.

Late goals earn Bluebirds point A Jay Bothroyd brace saw Cardiff come from two goals behind to draw with ten-man Watford at Vicarage Road and maintain their unbeaten away league record. The Hornets stormed into a two goal lead thanks to efforts from John-Joe O'Toole and Will Hoskins, before Tamas Priskin was sent off for violent conduct. It still looked like it might be Watford's night when Richard Lee incredibly saved his third penalty in two games to thwart Ross McCormack, but his side's brave resistance was finally broken by a quick-fire double from Bothroyd. Watford may have started the game 12 places behind their opponents but they made a flying start after just two minutes.

Unmarked

Cardiff failed to deal with Leigh Bromby's long throw from the left, allowing Tommy Smith to return the ball towards the near post and O'Toole arrived unmarked to head his sixth of the season firmly past Tom Heaton. The home side's second came after 24 minutes when Kevin McNaughton misjudged Bromby's hopeful ball forward and Hoskins hit a speculative angled shot on the turn which took a wicked deflection off the Cardiff full-back and wrong-footed the helpless Heaton. The Hornets were firmly in control but Priskin made life unnecessarily hard for his team-mates six minutes later when he was sent off after appearing to lash out at Darren Purse. It looked like the Bluebirds would get back in the game on the hour when Smith felled Peter Whittingham in the area but, fresh from saving two first-half penalties at Southampton on Saturday, Lee dived low to his right to keep out McCormack's effort from 12 yards.

Another lapse

But it was another lapse in the home side's defence that gave Cardiff their lifeline with 18 minutes remaining when Mat Sadler's slip saw the ball fall for Bothroyd, who struck a 20-yard deflected effort over Lee. And Bothroyd was in the right place to get his team back on terms three minutes later when he turned at the far post to fire high into the net after Purse had flicked on a Paul Parry corner.