Tom Cleverley scored the only goal of the game to help Watford produce one of the narrow football scores of the weekend in the Championship. Watford moves to the top of the table with the three points. Cleverley scored in first-half stoppage time before Hassane Kamara was sent off in the 81st minute. The hosts endured a nervy ending but hung on for the three points.
Player ratings
Watford: Bachmann (8), Gaspar (6), Sierralta (6), Cathcart (6), Kamara (5), Kayembe (6), Choudhury (7), Sarr (7), Cleverley (7), Sema (7), Pedro (7)
Subs: Gosling (6), Bayo (6), Asprilla (6), Kabasele (6)
Burnley: Muric (6), Roberts (6), Harwood-Bellis (6), Taylor (6), Maatsen (7), Cullen (6), Brownhill (7), Bastien (6), Benson (6), Barnes (5), Costelloe (5)
Subs: Cork (7), Tella (7), Rodriguez (6), Vitinho (6), McNally (5)
Man of the match: Daniel Bachmann
Managers Reaction
Watford manager Rob Edwards: “I feel really pleased obviously. It was another tough game – we’ve had three of them so far. We’ve had to show three different faces in each of those games. I’m really proud of the players given the circumstances within the game. We had to show a lot of resilience again. We needed our goalkeeper to make some wonderful saves. We had to put bodies on the line and we fought for each other. We need that as we know we have talent but we need that fight and make the running for each other. We’re not a team at the moment that’s going to dominate every game, not right now, but we’ll get better. It’s the character and the quality at the right times that pleases me.”
Burnley manager Vincent Kompany: “Look, in the first half they were better than us we. We couldn’t get going. We didn’t concede chances but they were threatening. We put our bodies on the line, blocks, tackles, all that stuff, which is the basics in the Championship. But in the first half, there was no threat, nothing. I think that will improve though.”
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