Watford remain stuck in a rut after succumbing to FA Cup defeat at Southampton

Southampton 1 Watford 0: The hosts held on for victory after pulling ahead through Jack Stephens in the fourth minute

Jack Stephens celebrates his first goal for Southampton (Getty)

Watford’s first game under new head coach Javi Gracia will not have filled him with much confidence that he can immediately arrest their alarming loss of recent form.

Their injury-hit team were very much second-best at a drizzly St Mary’s and were beaten far more convincingly than the score suggests. They have now won only two of their past 13 games, against Bristol City in the FA Cup third round and Leicester City at Vicarage Road in the Premier League on Boxing Day.

Jack Stephens put Saints ahead in only the fourth minute with his first goal for the club, but after that they missed a host of chances and were left hanging on late in a game they should have won comfortably .

Guido Carrillo, their new signing from AS Monaco at a reported cost of £19.2 m, is expected to solve Southampton’s scoring difficulties but he was restricted to a late cameo as a substitute.

Both clubs fielded stronger teams than might have been expected ahead of midweek matches ahead of relegation rivals. Southampton made three changes to the side that had drawn 1-1 at home to Tottenham Hotspur, Watford rotating four of the eleven that had begun the defeat away to Leicester City.

Orestis Karnezis, on loan to Watford from Udinese, kept his place in goal after making his first Premier League start at the King Power Stadium but was soon picking the ball out of his net. Ryan Bertrand swung in a free kick from the left and Karnezis could only parry a glancing header by Shane Long. The ball fell to Stephens, who rifled home a low shot. His only other senior goal had come just over three years ago, during a loan spell with Swindon Town.

Watford had a chance to level when Oriol Romeu fouled Etienne Capoue 23 yards out but Richarlison curved his free kick a foot too high.


 Soares comes close to adding a second for Southampton 
 (Getty)

But the home side, buoyed by Stephens’ strike, were looking more confident. Long won another header after 19 minutes from a cross by Cedric Soares but his effort went past the post, and Soufiane Boufal launched some ambitious runs. Soares was in top form and his fierce cross-shot four minutes before the interval was inches away from the foot of Long as the Ireland forward slid in.

But Watford could have equalised in first-half added time. Richarlison hit what looked like a misplaced cross from the left and as Saints goalkeeper Alex McCarthy left his line to claim the ball, it simply kept going and in the end needed to be fingertipped over the crossbar to safety.

Watford were fortunate after 51 minutes when Andre Carrillo barged Boufal off the ball in the penalty area but referee Bobby Madley saw nothing untoward. And lucky again four minutes later when Long, having controlled Dusan Tadic’s exquisite lofted pass, put his attempted lob wide.


 Shane Long reacts after a missed chance on goal 
 (Getty Images)

The visitors’ goal continued to lead a charmed life as Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg’s rocket shot from 30 yards after 63 minutes ricocheted from the upright. And Soares nearly got the goal his performance would have merited when he just failed to connect with a cross by substitute Jeremy Pied.

Of course, while Southampton squandered chances to extend their lead they remained vulnerable to the outside chance of an equaliser, however unlikely even the visiting supporters seemed to consider it, describing two of their team’s more wayward efforts as ‘f***ing useless’. Jerome Sinclair’s shot from 15 yards that went for a throw in richly deserved that reaction. When Christian Kabasele, completely unchallenged, headed wide from six yards in injury time it summed up their afternoon.