The new Watford head coach, Javi Gracia, admitted he did not enjoy his first match in charge as the team he inherited failed to trouble a Southampton side who should have won far more convincingly. And he might have enjoyed it even less if he had heard many of the 3,500 visiting supporters jeering their own players’ unimpressive efforts to score, and chanting “we’re Watford FC, we sack who we want” in reference to the club’s revolving-door policy towards head coaches.
Nor was he aware of what appeared to be a frank exchange of views between some of the away fans and Jose Holebas and Christian Kabasele as they went to applaud them at the end. “I don’t understand what the supporters sing,” Gracia said. “I can only say that many players at the end went to say thank you, and me too. At this moment I’m only worried about getting a good result to make them happier.”
Gracia’s new charges have now won only two of their past 13 games and seldom looked like staying in the FA Cup after Jack Stephens, on his 24th birthday, scored his first goal for Saints after four minutes. And it could have been far worse for Watford if the home side had taken any of a host of chances to add to their lead.
“I hoped [for] a better performance,” Gracia said. “The match didn’t start the best way. In the second half we had more control and had a chance to score until the end, but it wasn’t a good match and I hope in the next match to improve our level. We’ll try to do better next time. I saw a team that wanted to get the goal and fight until the end. Tomorrow we start again.”
Both clubs fielded stronger teams than might have been expected before midweek matches against relegation rivals, but Southampton’s looked far more dynamic, even without Guido Carrillo, their new £19.2m signing from Monaco, who stayed on the bench until the final 10 minutes. It did not look as if he would be needed when Ryan Bertrand, who later limped off with a hamstring injury, swung in a free kick from the left. The Watford goalkeeper Orestis Karnezis parried a glancing header by Shane Long straight to Stephens, who fired it low into the net from 10 yards.
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With Soufiane Boufal and Cedric Soares lively down the wings, Southampton made and missed a number of openings but seldom looked likely to pay for missing them until Richarlison’s mis-hit cross nearly fluked its way over Alex McCarthy in first-half stoppage time.
The pattern of play continued after the break. Southampton had a penalty appeal turned down when Andre Carrillo barged Boufal off the ball in the area, and Long lobbed well wide after controlling Dusan Tadic’s exquisite lofted pass. And the visitors’ luck was in again when Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg’s stunning shot from 30 yards after 63 minutes cannoned back off the angle of post and crossbar.
Watford pressed forward late on in an attempt to force an equaliser but failed to trouble McCarthy. Substitute Jerome Sinclair’s shot from 15 yards that went for a throw-in was the worst of their efforts, with Kabasele’s stoppage-time header, which went wide when he was completely unchallenged, a close second.
“We move to the next round and want to progress but we feel we are growing as a team and playing better,” said the Southampton manager, Mauricio Pellegrino. “We could have killed the game earlier but we deserved the win even if we suffered towards the end.”
Star man: Cedric Soares (Southampton)
