watford
Football

Sky Bet Championship: Watford FC 0-0 Hull City FC

Watford began their 2022/23 Sky Bet Championship season with a hard-fought draw at home to Hull City, with both teams balancing each other out to secure a clean sheet in frigid temperatures.

The first match action since mid-November produced a sprinkling of chances, with Joo Pedro making the most of them for the hosts, while Jacob Greaves and Tyler Smith kept Daniel Bachmann vigilant at the other end.

After the interval, chances became more regular, and both defences performed well to keep the scoreless, as Joo Pedro, Yáser Asprilla, and Rey Manaj all came near but couldn’t get the all-important goal.

Slaven Bili and his men have an away journey to Huddersfield Town on Saturday, and with their standing in the play-off spots improved, they will be hoping to stretch their undefeated run to four games in West Yorkshire.

Head Coach Bili made five changes to the squad that drew with Bristol City the previous game here, with Jeremy Ngakia, Craig Cathcart, Tom Dele-Bashiru, Asprilla, and Joo Pedro all being named starters.

Following a shaky start, play was momentarily paused around the five-minute mark when Hamza Choudhury and Dimitrios Pelkas injured themselves while engaging to a 50/50 challenge, forcing the latter to be replaced by Greg Docherty.

Watford gradually crept into the game, with Joo Pedro making his presence known with a slick kick on 12 minutes, before Choudhury was taken off for Joseph Hungbo after failing to run off his knock.

Soon after, visiting midfielder Ryan Woods drew the first yellow card of the game for a harsh tackle on Joo Pedro on halfway, and Greaves headed meekly over from a deep corner.

As the clock approached the half-hour mark, the Tigers came one inch ahead to scoring, but Christian Kabasele was on there to deny Smith, and goalkeeper Matt Ingram did well to palm Joo Pedro’s low shot away from danger.

With Joo Pedro dropping deeper in the aftermath of Choudhury’s exit, Asprilla was gradually asserting himself in a central attacking role, and while the teenager continued to initiate home attempts, Kabasele and later Bachmann were called upon to dodge danger to keep it 0-0.

One minute before halftime, substitute Hungbo blasted a reckless, volleyed attempt off target in the wake of an inswinging Ken Sema free-kick, and after a brief Hull surge forward, referee Dean Whitestone called the first half to an end.

The visitors had the first clear-cut opportunity of the second quarter, when Bachmann saved a drove Smith effort from a close position, but as the game opened up, Cyrus Christie was quick to head away a tempting Joo Pedro free-kick.

In the 52nd minute, the Man from Brasil came close to breaking the deadlock, turning in space near the penalty spot before firing a thunderous low shot that Ingram dived on down to his left.

With the momentum solidly in Watford’s favour, Asprilla came within inches of scoring his first goal in yellow, firing too close to Ingram after being picked out on the left by Sema, and then going close again with a headed effort at the second try.

Davis got in on the act as the hour mark approached, sloshing a zinger towards goal and winning a corner from which Ngakia narrowly missed with a looping header.

Hull were struggling to manage the increasing Watford pressure – and Joo Pedro again fired a shot off target – however former Hornet Ozan Tufan and then Greaves both blazed over from the outside of the 18-yard box, highlighting Hull’s danger.

Manaj came off the substitutes for the first time since August, just before Christie leathered an effort in the direction of Bachmann, and the former narrowly missed the goal with only two minutes remaining after being expertly picked out by Hassane Kamara.

Hull were mostly confined to their own half for the rest of the game, but Watford were unable to break through their tenacious defence and were forced to settle for a share of the points.

Kajal S

Kajal S

kajal

Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.