Helguson ensures clean sweep

Watford 3 Barnsley

Watford exorcised some of their own personal demons, but in the process condemned relegation candidates Barnsley to another morale-denting defeat at Vicarage Road yesterday. Gianluca Vialli's home side started the season among the favourites for the First Division title, but had failed to live up to expectations after an early string of disappointing results. But this victory marked the first time during the campaign that Vialli's underachievers have kept two clean sheets in a row, easing the pressure on the club's much-criticised defence.

"I wouldn't say we're motoring yet, but we are starting to get there,'' enthused Watford's assistant manager, Ray Wilkins. "That's two back-to-back clean sheets and we are now starting to look like a team. We appear to be improving as the weeks go by and the players are really starting to gel.''

For the visitors, the game was always going to be a battle, but for much of the first half their goalkeeper, Kevin Miller, must have felt as though he was the only Barnsley player who turned up for the fight. After just five minutes, he was called upon to claw away a Tommy Smith header after Micah Hyde had been offered the freedom of Hertfordshire on the right.

Miller was again called into desperate action 20 minutes later, when only his last-ditch fist away stopped the ball reaching the head of substitute Ramon Vega, after some fine play by Paolo Vernazza and Hyde. Vega had come on in place of Filippo Galli just 20 minutes into the game, after the veteran Italian defender had sustained a calf injury.

Despite the home side's dominance, the Vicarage Road crowd was becoming slightly unnerved at the inability of Vialli's men to find the net. Given the team's defensive record, the fans must have felt as though Watford would be made to pay for the wasted opportunities, as Heidar Helguson and then Hyde again failed to break the deadlock.

But Vialli's half-time talk must have awoken something in his strikeforce, as they took just five minutes to find a way past Miller in the second half. The keeper had little chance of saving his side this time around, as his defence abandoned him, attempting to play offsides. That left Vega, still up the field from a Stephen Glass corner, with the simple task of squaring for Smith, who gave Miller no chance. The lead soon doubled when Icelandic international Helguson killed off any remaining Bradford spirit after 61 minutes, as he found a way past Miller at the second attempt.

The home side's miserly defence did not allow Barnsley a shot on goal until the 90th minute, when Brian O'Callaghan saw his effort well saved by Alec Chamberlain. The Hornets then added insult to injury by finding time for a third goal deep into injury time, when Helguson doubled his own tally as he got on the end of a Glass cross from the left.

The defeat left Barnsley's caretaker manager, Glyn Hodges, to concede that, no matter who takes charge, a difficult season lies ahead. "I don't know what it will take, but you can't capitulate and give goals away like that,'' Hodges said. "It's going to take a lot of hard work – we've been struggling to score all season, but it appears if we get better at one thing, the other slips. We need to find a balance, get our heads up and battle on.''