Good Morning. It's Wednesday 23rd October, and here are the latest headlines from Elland Road...
Hornets stung by early Leeds goalsLeeds surged to the top of the Championship standings, albeit temporarily, in a match that Watford keeper Daniel Bachmann will want to forget. The young Austrian faced a challenging night, starting with an unexpected drenching from the ER sprinkler system during a pre-pitch inspection, then, just two minutes into the match fumbled Ramazani's speculative effort from the edge of the area, which then dropped over the goal line.
Four minutes later, and still reeling from his error, the young Austrian made an absolute meal of Gnonto's cross, pushing the ball kindly into Arronson's pathway; from 12 yards out, there was only going to be one conclusion.
With all the urgency gone, it's fair to say Leeds took their foot off the gas shortly after, although they still mustered 24 shots at goal, such was the gulf in class between the two sides. The Hornets grabbed a goal back early in the second half, but apart from picking the ball out of the net, Illan Meslier was only called upon once all evening, diving to his left to smartly deny Chakvetadze. from the edge of the Leeds penalty area.
The win also takes Farke's side to the top of the form guide (alongside Burnley) with four wins and two draws (14 points) from their last six games. It may not have been a vintage performance, but Farke's men did enough to extend their unbeaten run to six games.
I thought we were unfortunate to come away with nothing - CleverleyBoth Managers gave a very different interpretation of the game during their post match summary. Daniel Farke rued only scoring twice after having 24 shots at goal whilst Tom Cleverley believed his Watford side did enough to get something from the match.
Daniel Farke told BBC Radio Leeds:First of all I'm really, really happy with the three points. I was worried after 10 minutes when we were 2-0 up I have to say. Last Friday was more or less a magic night and everybody was praising us and then you go into the next game against a really good opponent and then easily go 2-0 up and it can lead to a situation where you do one step less and you end up dropping points.
We missed an unbelievable amount of chances and if you don't score the third goal you still have to be awake and play without any mistakes. I have to pay compliments to our fans too as they were excellent and made sure we kept playing on the front foot.
Tom Cleverley told BBC Radio 3CR:I thought we showed excellent character this evening. The personality we showed in possession was chalk and cheese from what you saw on Saturday. I thought we were unfortunate to come away with nothing.
(On Bachmann) Just two freak mistakes that you don't normally see from Daniel. He's one of the best shotstoppers in the league and he's won us far more points that he has lost us but tonight wasn't his best evening. We went through a really strong fitness test with him yesterday because we didn't want a repeat of Saturday where you could see after 10 minutes he wasn't fit. The goals were nothing to do with that.
