Watford 3-0 Bolton

by Kadeem Simmonds

at Vicarage Road

WATFORD kicked off the Championship season with a comfortable 3-0 victory over a very poor Bolton Wanderers.

Both teams will harbour ambitions of promotion this season but after this display Bolton may need to change their target, looking more like a side set to struggle with relegation.

First-half goals from captain Troy Deeney, who has been linked with a move to Hull, and Matej Vydra, who was making his second debut for the club, gave the Hornets a comfortable lead.

Substitute Fernando Forestieri then added a third with 10 minutes to go to cap off a spectacular afternoon for manager Beppe Sannino.

Watford nearly got off to a dream start. Deeney capitalised on a Dean Moxey backpass, his first touch for Bolton, but the striker couldn’t find the target after 15 seconds.

The lacklustre Wanderers seemed to think they were still on the beach, the home side by and large the better team early on but unable to really test the keeper.

It was only a matter of time before one of Watford’s shots found the back of the net and they were a goal up after 17 minutes.

A teasing ball from Daniel Pudil on the left set Deeney off in behind the defence and he didn’t need another chance, delicately dinking the ball over goalkeeper Andy Lonergan to score the first goal at Vicarage Road this season.

It was 2-0 six minutes later. A simple long ball out of the defence from Ben Tozser didn’t look like it would cause Bolton any harm.

But Vydra chased it down, cut inside the box and coolly finished with his left foot through Lonergan’s legs.

Whatever Dougie Freedman said to his men at half-time seemed to work, as they shot out into the second determined to test the Hornets’ defence.

Chung-Yong Lee tried Heurelho Gomes with a splendid curling effort from the left-hand side with his right foot, which had the former Tottenham goalkeeper scrambling to tip it over the bar.

But it was game over with 10 minutes to go.

Sannino swapped Vydra with Forestieri and within minutes he was through on goal and slotted the ball between Lonergan’s legs with his third touch.