Former Watford trainee Bruce Dyer sunk his old club to end Barnsley's
nine-match run without a win and give their survival hopes a massive boost.
Dyer netted the opening goal in the first half and won a second-half penalty
as Watford's recent revival was ended at Oakwell.
Steve Parkin's men made a bright start when Dave Mulligan crossed after only
30 seconds but Richard Naylor could not get his weak header on target.
Watford had their first chance of the match in the sixth minute when Gifton
Noel-Williams was fouled by Steve Chettle on the edge of the penalty area. Lee
Cook stepped up to take the resulting free-kick but his shot was saved by Andy
Marriott.
Noel-Williams went close to firing Gianluca Vialli's men in front when he
curled a fantastic right-foot shot from the left side of the area but it flashed
inches wide of the post.
The deadlock was broken in the 33rd minute when Dyer scored for the third
successive match with a superb left-foot volley past Alec Chamberlain for his
16th goal of the season.
The visitors suffered a further blow in the 38th minute when Noel-Williams and
Filippo Galli were forced to go off through injury, to be replaced by Anthony
McNamee and Lloyd Doyley.
Watford thought they had equalised three minutes later when Neil Cox's volley
struck the crossbar and bounced down, but the visitors' claims that the ball had
crossed the line were rejected by the match officials.
Barnsley doubled their advantage two minutes after the break when Dyer was
brought down in the area by Cox and Darren Barnard made no mistake from the
penalty spot.
Watford immediately pushed forward in search of a lifeline and Micah Hyde's
header was parried by Marriott, and the Barnsley goalkeeper then needed to pull
off a stunning save to keep out McNamee's 25-yard drive.
Vialli threw caution to the wind and introduced his final substitute in the
54th minute when Heidar Helguson replaced Cook.
It failed to have the desire effect, although the Icelandic striker went close
with a well-struck shot from outside the area which went just wide.
Teams:
Barnsley: Marriott, Mulligan, Chettle, Flynn, Gibbs, Betsy, Gary Jones, Neil, Barnard, Naylor, Dyer (Sheron 88).
Subs Not Used: Miller, Barker, O'Callaghan, Gorre.
Booked: Naylor.
Goals: Dyer 33, Barnard 47 pen.
Watford: Chamberlain, Blondeau, Cox, Galli (Doyley 38), Robinson, Hyde, Nielsen, Mahon, Cook (Helguson 54), Gayle, Noel-Williams (McNamee 38).
Subs Not Used: Hand, Lee.
Booked: Noel-Williams, Cox, Robinson.
Att: 12,449
Ref: M Cooper (Walsall).
E-mail Article 
Print-Friendly
Subscribe to RSS Feed 
Post to del.icio.us
Facebook