Watford 2 Barnsley 1: Hill retains sense of humour as Reds are sunk by Eustace double

Hill joked that he was tempted to leave after just 10 minutes, but he stayed on to see John Eustace score twice and Barnsley manage only a late consolation from substitute Scott Golbourne.

Hill had no complaints about the result, but said of the game: “It was very boring and not great to watch. I thought about getting on the motorway to avoid the storm after 10 minutes. That’s how bad it was.

“I like my football but that resembled rugby. We lost the game and maybe that was down to Watford. They stopped us playing and have plenty of quality.

“We controlled possession but didn’t do enough of it.

“Their first goal summed up the game. There was an air shot, two mis-hits and then the goal. The cardinal sin was to concede the second goal like we did.”

For the second Watford goal, a poor header out from Stephen Foster fell to Eustace just outside the area and he rode a couple of half-hearted challenges before slipping the ball past Luke Steele.

“We should be talking about getting a point from this game,” said Hill. “We have to dig in and get something from it.

“It was a bit like gardening. And I don’t like gardening so that sums it all up for me.”

Watford manager Sean Dyche was delighted with his side’s professionalism after they secured back-to-back wins in a week where their leading scorer departed the club.

The victories have come during what has been the most turbulent time in Dyche’s management career, after star striker Marvin Sordell was pulled out of the squad for the 2-0 win at Millwall on transfer deadline day and vice-captain Adrian Mariappa was linked with a host of clubs before remaining at Vicarage Road.

Saturday’s win came from an unlikely source as captain Eustace doubled his goals tally for the season in one game, before Golbourne pulled a goal back five minutes from time.

Scott Wiseman’s cross was flicked on by Craig Davies and the debutant defender, a second-half substitute, arrived at the far post to halve the deficit.

Dyche said: “It is difficult in football to win perfectly every week and it is important that you find a way of winning and today we did.

“That sounds negative because we played well in the first half particularly and started brightly at the beginning of the second half through good game management.

“We didn’t look fazed, (goalkeeper) Scott Loach has had hardly anything to do, we kept a solid shape and we knew they would push on – which they did – but we were aware of that and Eustace pops up with his second and we were looking like good value for the win.

“I expected the game to just drift because we were managing it well and without being as fluid as we have been, we were in control and then we conceded a soft goal. Overall, I think we were good value for the three points.”

Watford: Loach, Hodson, Mariappa, Nosworthy, Doyley, Eustace, Murray, Hogg, Kacaniklic (Buaben 69), Deeney, Garner. Unused substitutes: Bond, Dickinson, Yeates, Iwelumo.

Barnsley: Steele, Wiseman, Edwards, Foster, McNulty (Doyle 68), Perkins, Smith, Tonge (Golbourne 57), Davies, Done (Dagnall 46), Gray. Unused substitutes: Preece, Hassell.

Referee: R East (Wiltshire).

Man of the match: John Eustace.