Watford 4 Doncaster Rovers 1: Away-day blues leave Saunders and Rovers rock-bottom of table

Watford took advantage of Herold Goulon’s second half sending off to round off their year with a convincing victory and leave Doncaster struggling at the bottom.

The score was level at 1-1 when the midfielder was shown a second yellow card by referee Darren Drysdale for a foul on Michael Kightly.

After that the home side took control, scoring through Marvin Sordell’s second of the match, substitute John Eustace and Kightly.

Sordell had earlier scored the opening goal just before half-time but Doncaster hit back immediately after the break through Billy Sharp.

It was enough to leave Saunders frustrated with his team.

“There was nothing in the game,” he said. “The first goal was a foul on Habib Beye. The lad’s just jumped into him, the referee’s not given it and he goes through and slots it in the corner.

“Billy’s (Sharp) had a great chance to equalise, (James) Coppinger’s put him in to make it 1-1, but we came out second half and got a great goal back.

“It was an even game and then at 1-1, I thought we were going to go on and win it until we shot ourselves in the foot again.

“The last two goals were terrible goals from our point of view. We had a couple of throw-ins first half which went straight to them, the goalkeeper has thrown a couple straight to them and then the free-kick at the end we pass it straight to them.”

Watford took the lead shortly before the break when Sordell ran at the defence before placing a fine finish inside Gary Woods’ left-hand post but Doncaster levelled soon after the restart when Sharp headed in El-Hadji Diouf’s cross.

The Hornets were to take control after Goulon’s dismissal, with Sordell glancing home Mark Yeates’s inswinging cross.

Eustace made it three with just his second touch after coming on, driving home a left-foot finish after Rovers had failed to clear their lines, and Kightly completed the victory in injury time, latching on to a poor free-kick and attacking the defence before curling in a shot from the edge of the area.

Watford manager Sean Dyche insisted his side got what they deserved.

“It was a strange kind of performance, it was a nearly performance, and then we really turned the screw with 10 men which can be hard to do because it’s very awkward to play against so I was really, really pleased with the last half-an-hour,” said Dyche. “The game was going a bit flat and then we just managed to build momentum and then the sending off.”

Watford: Loach, Hodson, Mariappa, Nosworthy, Dickinson, Yeates, Kightly, Buaben (Eustace 83), Hogg, Deeney (Iwelumo 86), Sordell (Garner 87). Unused substitutes: Bond, Doyley.

Doncaster Rovers: Woods, Chimbonda (O’Connor 25), Hird, Beye, Ilunga, Barnes, Gillett (Bennett 83), Coppinger, Goulon, Sharp, Diouf (Hayter 87). Unused substitutes: Maxted, Friend.

Referee: D Drysdale (Lincolnshire).

Man of the match: Marvin Sordell.