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| Odion Ighalo celebrates after scoring Watford's first goal |
REMI GARDE should have just one instruction to Aston Villa’s scouts: find me the next Odion Ighalo.
Or, after another Villa Park nightmare, he’d probably settle for another Troy Deeney!
The new boss needs another five or six January signings to have a realistic chance of avoiding the drop.
And Garde said: “Before I came I heard we were finished and if we carry on that way it will be over.”
Three first-half minutes highlighted the difference between promoted Watford and a team that has spent the last 28 seasons in the top-flight.
Ighalo, picked up for a pittance via the Pozzo family’s ownership of the Hornets, Italian side Udinese and Spain’s Granada, put Watford ahead.
But £8million Jordan Ayew, who did grab a consolation late on, missed an easier opportunity to level.
Ighalo’s eye for a goal – that’s eight for the season and 24 in 33 games this year – allowed him to pounce after Ben Watson’s shot clattered off Ciaran Clark.
A virtually identical build-up at the other end saw the ball fall to Ayew but he screwed his shot hopelessly wide.
Villa defender Micah Richards showed his team-mates how it should be done with a towering header to make it 1-1.
Then Deeney, a Birmingham City fan and loudly booed throughout, tried to slip Ighalo through but Alan Hutton pushed it wide of his own keeper Brad Guzan to make it 2-1.
Deeney – who as a teenager failed to show up for a trial at Villa to go out with his girlfriend – then rubbed salt into the wounds with a late header in front of the Holte End.
And the Watford skipper defended his over-exuberant celebrations.
He said: “I can’t explain how good that was. Their fans gave me stick all the way through. It’s football, we get caught up in the emotion.”
Aston Villa: Guzan; Hutton, Richards, Clark, Richardson; Gil (Adama 67), Veretout, Gana (Gestede 82), Sanchez, Sinclair; Ayew.
Watford: Gomes (Arlauskis 67); Nyom, Cathcart, Britos, Ake; Paredes (Anya 67), Watson, Capoue, Abdi (Guedioura 80); Ighalo, Deeney.
Ref: L Mason.
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