Watford 3 Coventry City 0

[dutchman]

Hornets go through in the Carabao Cup



Coventry City are free to concentrate on their League One campaign after Watford finally found their way to goal in the Carabao Cup.

Watford’s £30million man Ismaila Sarr gave his team a first half lead, before Daryl Janmaat and Adalberto Penaranda glossed the scoreline.

It might have been more - but make no mistake, City - and their incredible travelling support - were not disgraced.

Mark Robins made six changes to the team which beat Gillingham with Josh Eccles, Callum O’Hare and Gervane Kastaneer making their first starts of the season.

By comparison Watford changed all 11 of the starters who had lost to West Ham on Saturday.

Neither team seemed especially inconvenienced and while the Hornets had most of the possession in the first half, they rarely forced Robins’ men out of shape.

As a result the opening 45 minutes was a period of limited openings - and only one goal.

However, the visitors might have opened the scoring in the 11th minute when Liam Kelly picked out O’Hare on the counter.

The pitch opened up for the Aston Villa youngster, he surged goalwards but scuffed his shot wide from near the D.

Seven minutes later Danny Welbeck eluded the Sky Blues defence but blazed over from outside the area.

And on the half hour Ben Wilson, in for regular No. 1 Marko Marosi, denied Roberto Pereyra.

The attacker twisted and turned 20 yards out and curled a rising shot away from the Coventry goalkeeper, who plunged to his left and pushed it safely away for a corner.

The deadlock broke soon after though.

Sarr ran off Brandon Mason on the Watford right and Isaac Success slid a beautifully-weighted pass between the left back and Dom Hyam. Sarr nervelessly fired across Wilson.

That gave the Hornets the platform to go on and open up the game in the second period.

Hiwula nearly put Amadou Bakayoko clean through soon after the restart but the striker couldn’t take the ball away from the defence.

And Matty Godden had a rising shot which narrowly skimmed the crossbar soon after his 61st minute introduction.

But there was far more action in the Sky Blues area and the Premier League outfit took marched into the third round.

Janmaat fired home from 15 yards just before the hour.

And Penaranda smashed a long distance effort into Wilson’s top corner.