“Man of the match”, “A success”: Some Watford fans love star attacker’s performance in the 2-0 win vs Newcastle + Match report

Watford oust Newcastle United to progress to the 5th round of the FA Cup

Watford came out on top in the FA Cup 4th-round tie against Newcastle United earlier in the day. Goals from Andre Gray and Isaac Success gave the Hornets a win over the Magpies at St. James’ Park.

Watford started with Craig Cathcart and Miguel Britos as the main centre-halves with Issac Success, Andre Gray and Will Hughes leading the front line.

Both teams started with a multitude of changes to their starting line-ups and even though the Magpies were at home, Watford started the game in the ascendancy.

All through the first half, it did look like a 50-50 game in which the away side just had the attacking edge. Within 5 minutes, a strong shot by Quina from 30 yards out had to be parried by keeper Woodman.

Six minutes later, a free-kick from Chalobah was inches away as it seemed to shave the bar. This trend continued until half-time, with Watford doing most of the attacking.

Although Newcastle weren’t troubled too much defensively, they were unable to create anything going forward, which was Rafa’s main worry. Going into half-time, Newcastle had created no clear-cut chances and had no shots on target.

When the second half began, it seemed like Newcastle were fired up from whatever Rafa had said during the interval as they started whipping the ball into the box but the Watford defence stood strong.

It was finally in the 62nd minute that the deadlock was broken but it was the away side that took the lead. Hughes collected the ball in the midfield and slipped a beautiful pass through to the runner.

Andre Gray collected the ball and took a delicious first touch before slotting it into Woodman’s near post to make it 1-0 to Watford with around a third of the game to play.

Five minutes later, Manquillo seemed to dribble the entire Watford defence but his deft chip was cleared away by a well-positioned defender. Newcastle threw on Ayoze Perez and Christian Atsu to try and affect the game.

In the final knockings of the game, Newcastle didn’t have an option but to commit men forward and they paid the price for this. Hughes’ clearance fed Quina down the left flank, who charged towards the box.

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His low cross was met by an arriving Issac Success who sealed the win for Gracia’s men, who progressed to the 5th round of the FA Cup.

Here’s how some Watford fans reacted to this important victory: