by Kadeem Simmonds

Watford clinched promotion to the Premier League on Saturday after Middlesbrough dropped points away to Fulham.

Boro’s loss also means that should Bournemouth beat Bolton tonight, they too will be promoted automatically.

It is a tough defeat to take for manager Aitor Karanka, who saw his side recover from 3-1 down to pull it back to 3-3.

But in an attempt to grab all three points, Karanka sent up goalkeeper Dimitrios Konstantopoulos for a corner and Fulham scored on the counter-attack.

Karanka, when asked if he had given Konstantopoulos the signal to go up front, said: “Yes, because I felt that one point wasn’t enough and we needed three points.

“Now I am sitting here at the table one point might have been enough but at that time I preferred to take risks so I told him to go.

“When you take a risk and you concede a goal, the following day you can say that it was because you took a risk. But the problem with not taking a risk is that you will never know what would have happened if you did.

“It will be difficult now because Bournemouth have two more games and one win will be no problem.

“But our aim was to get into the play-offs. We wanted the play-offs two or three weeks ago.”

Watford played in the early kick-off on Saturday, beating Brighton 2-0 thanks to goals from Troy Deeney and Matej Vydra.

Boro’s loss — as well as Norwich drawing 1-1 to Rotherham — meant that the Hornets went up over the weekend and should they beat Sheffield Wednesday on the final day of the season, they will clinch the title regardless of what happens when Bournemouth travel up to Charlton.