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Burnley lined up 4-4-2. Amazingly, Marlon Beresford retained his place in goal. He was shielded (ha ha) by a back four of Branch, The Skip, McGregor and Dean West. Midfield comprised Briscoe, Grant, Weller and Ian Moore who stood in for Little on the right. Taylor partnered Blake up front.
Having secured only one home win in the league this year, Burnley’s brittle confidence was never going to take much breaking. In fact the game was but 10 minutes old when an Ardley corner was headed in by Brown to give the Hornets the lead.
It didn’t take long for Burnley to get level, and the goal came from a predictable source. Robbie Blake embarked on a run down the right. His inch-perfect cross was met by the head of Gareth Taylor who restored parity at the far post.
We had scarcely settled back into our seats when Watford regained the lead. Breaking down the right, Mahon fed a harmless looking-ball into the box. I presume it was harmless, as Burnley’s defenders treated it as such allowing Hyde to steal in and sweep the ball past the forlorn figure of Beresford.
As if Watford weren’t giving us a hard enough time, Branch almost put through his own goal. From the resultant corner kick, Neil Cox did what Branch had narrowly avoided doing and crashed the ball home to make it 3-1.
Two minutes later, Burnley were awarded a free kick on the edge of their own area. Davis aimlessly lumped the ball upfield. Inevitably, it was picked up by a Watford player who returned it with interest. Chopra easily outpaced the lumbering Steve Davis and has the simple task of lobbing the ball over Marlon, who gave it a token wave as it sailed over him. At 1-4, Burnley’s supporters were inquiring in industrial terms as to what, exactly was going on. Well those that were left did. As soon as Chopra scored, a sizeable section of the crowd understandably upped and left. Which meant that they missed Burnley’s mini-revival.
Davis reduced arrears to 4-2 after tapping in a knock down from Taylor, and the deficit was further cut when Taylor himself headed into an unguarded net to make it 4-3. Game on? Erm, no. Almost immediately from the restart Watford made it an incredible 5-3 after a through ball cut all too easily through the Burnley defence to leave Chopra with an easy tap in for his second.
But there was still time for one more goal before half time, as Gareth Taylor chested a long ball down, turned and rifled a superb shot past the despairing Chamberlain. Half-time brought with it an incredible 5-4 scoreline.
Half-time saw Grant replaced with Gnohere. Amazingly, it was to be fifteen minutes before we got another goal. Although Burnley had dominated the opening exchanges of the second half, it was Watford who increased their lead. Marlon thought he could beat Tommy Smith to a long ball over the top. He was wrong. Smith simply nicked the ball away from Beresford and played in Chopra for his third and Watford’s sixth, as he tapped into an unguarded net.
With fifteen minutes remaining, the introduction of young Matty O’ Neill brought a rapturous response from the Turf Moor faithful. In fairness his impact was minimal, but he lifted the place. Well, he did until Watford scored their seventh.
Another long ball did for Burnley, and this time it was Norville who had been granted the freedom of Turf Moor with West out of position again. Chopra smashed the ball home, beating Beresford at his near post.