Liverpool 2 Watford 0

Guest · Posted: Sat Dec 23, 2006 9:49 pm Post subject: Liverpool 2 Watford 0

December 23, 2006

LIVERPOOL made it 26 home league games without defeat with victory over Watford - their best run since Kenny Dalglish was manager in 1991.

Rafael Benitez’s men may not quite be up to that vintage, but they are on the sort of run now with four straight league wins, that at least should secure them another season in the Champions League.

But Watford made them work hard and it was not until Craig Bellamy broke the deadlock 62 seconds into the second half that the Anfield men started to look comfortable.

Liverpool were forced to concentrate against a physical Watford side only securing the win two minutes from time with a Xabi Alonso long range special.

Liverpool brought in young Danish defender Daniel Agger and midfielder Luis Garcia in place of Sami Hyypia and Mark Gonzalez from the side that won 3-0 at Charlton last weekend.

The Anfield fans were expecting a convincing win but they found it tough getting space and time against Watford’s renowned resilience.

Bellamy gave Jay DeMerit a torrid time but his efforts to set up teammates failed to produce a breakthrough in the first half.

But for all Liverpool's dominance, Watford missed a sitter on 39 minutes when Jose Reina fumbled away a cross from Ashley Young, and unmarked Alhassan Bangura scooped the loose ball over the bar from 10 yards.

But Watford’s resistance lasted just two minutes after the break when Dirk Kuyt’s touch sent Gerrard storming through the middle, and his neat pass found Bellamy on the edge of the box.

The Welsh interbational turned to control the ball and lift it over Foster for his sixth goal of the season.

Watford almost levelled on 63 minutes when Tommy Smith got down the right and fired over a cross that Young met with a flicked header, Reina touching the ball over the bar.

Liverpool were frustrated in their serach for a second until Kuyt raced down the left and with his second attempt, slipped the ball back for Alonso fire in a spectacular 25-yarder into the top corner.

After the match Kop manager Rafa Bentiez said: "We deserved to win, but it was a difficult game.

"Craig is showing the sort of quality we bought him for. He has such pace and can get behind defences, while setting up chances for colleagues.

"His partnership with Dirk Kuyt is starting to get better and he is scoring goals. Strikers take confidence from goal and that is what we are now seeing from Craig."

For Watford chief Adrian Bothroyd it was another defeat, and they are now eight points from safety with only one league win in 18 matches.

Bothroyd said: "We competed well, but we are not taking our chances. The goals were both mistakes by us that could have been avoided.

"We are resilient and we could have come away from the game with something. The second goal finished it, but we had made chances before that and could have surprised them.

"It would be easy to say that this has been a killer result for us, with Arsenal coming up on Boxing Day. But it is only a killer if you allow it to knock you down for good.

"We will bounce back, we have to. But we know that competing well is not enough, we must score goals when the chances come around."