Watford fill their boots against hapless Bristol City to keep promotion ambitions on track

Watford (4) 6 (Moore OG 2, Sarr 15, Hughes 30, Sema 35, Sarr 55, Zinckernagel 90)

Bristol City (0) 0

The road back to the Premier League may not have been paved with gold by the Hornets up to now, but they are still on the right track after comfortably their biggest win of the season.

They have not always met as obliging opponents as a hapless Bristol City but latest boss Xisco Munoz will feel his team remain very much in the mix after making amends for the unexpected defeat to QPR in their last game at Vicarage Road.

They still boast a fine home record, with more wins on home soil than anyone else in the Championship and there is still plenty of time to have a say in who goes up automatically, even if the smart money is still on the play-offs. They have six or seven points to make up on the leaders.

It took all of 105 seconds for the Hornets to find themselves in front after Ismaila Sarr’s cross had found its way into the net via the crossbar and City defender Taylor Moore.

Sarr then doubled the lead with the game only 15 minutes old when Zak Vyner’s underhit pass allowed Tom Cleverley to seize possession and roll the ball to the unmarked winger, for a simple sidefoot home.

Will Hughes smashed in goal number three on the half hour, with the aid of a deflection moments after Joao Pedro had seen his goalbound shot from 12 yards cannon off a defender and over as the away side crumbled.

Goals seemed there for the taking and Ken Sema soon profited from a defence perpetually at sixes and sevens to crash home another pass played in from the right. It came moments after the unlucky Pedro had thudded another shot against the underside of the bar.

Sarr was in the mood to profit from a dreadful Robins rearguard, which had two of its more hopeless defenders hooked at the interval in a bid to stem the tide.

He did not have to work too hard to get his eighth of the campaign, as more gifts from a generous defence opened up an inviting target early in the second half.

Sarr unselfishly passed up the chance of a hat-trick by laying on the sixth on a plate for Philip Zinckernagel as the game reached 90 minutes. Goodness knows how many Watford might have scored had they really gone for it.

Hornets: Bachmann – Femenia (Wilmot 77), Troost-Ekong, Sierralta – Masina (Lazaar 78) – Cleverley (Zinckernagel 61), Hughes, Chalobah (Gosling h/t)– Sarr, Pedro, Sema (Gray 61). Subs not used: Cathcart, Perica, Elliot

Robins: Bentley – Vyner, Kalas, Moore (Mariappa h/t) – Hunt, Lansbury (Palmer 73), Paterson (Bakinson 63), Massengo, Towler (Nagy h/t) – Diedhiou (Wells 86), Semenyo. Subs not used: O’Leary, Pearson, Bell