Leeds United 3 Watford 3: Deeney denies Whites stunning victory
YEP 7/12/13Troy Deeney struck four minutes from time to deny Leeds United a sensational victory after a breathless contest at Elland Road.
United produced a stirring fightback from two goals down to lead 3-2 but Deeney’s late tap-in saw the points shared at the end of a pulsating and open match.
Watford appeared to be cruising to their first win in eight games after Deeney and Cristian Battocchio claimed first-half goals but Danny Pugh and Matt Smith turned the match on its head after half-time and Ross McCormack’s effort put Leeds within touching distance of a sixth straight home win.
But Deeney made no mistake when George Thorne’s bullet bounced off Paddy Kenny and into his path.
Leeds made a strong start to the match and McCormack showed another side to his game as two inviting deliveries created early chances.
Smith headed the first straight at goalkeeper Jonathan Bond and Marius Zaliukas was unable to keep the second down but Watford had their opportunities and both Deeney and Ikechi Anya went close in the first 10 minutes.
Anya’s close-range strike brought a decent parry from Paddy Kenny and Watford promptly took the lead on 12 minutes when Lewis McGugan dribbled into the box and stabbed a pass to Deeney who buried a sharp effort on the turn.
Anya almost produced a second Watford goal when he burst onto McGugan’s pass and dragged a shot a foot wide of Kenny’s far post but Leeds had plenty of the game and it took a quick reaction from Bond to pluck the ball off McCormack’s toes as the striker ran onto Rodolph Austin’s through ball.
Smith saw another chance on the half hour but stabbed the ball wide from the edge of the box and Watford went further ahead on the stroke of the interval as a quick break following an Alex Mowatt free-kick saw Bellerin burst clear and square a pass to Battocchio who held his nerve to beat Kenny.
United upped the intensity of their performance after the break and Pugh gave them a lifeline on 50 minutes when he collected the rebound from McCormack’s cross, ran clear of Nyron Nosworthy and chip a difficult finish over Bond.
And Smith equalised six minutes later as McCormack teed him up with a lovely cross which the striker nodded down over the line.
The blitz of goals left Watford in disarray and it took two excellent saves from Bond to deny Austin a third soon after.
A shot from Mowatt then smashed off the bar via a deflection off George Thorne but McCormack was not to be denied when he met Murphy’s lofted pass with a delicate and deadly flick. It looked like settling the game in Leeds’ favour until Deeney dragged Watford level in the dying stages.
Joel Ekstrand had a glorious chance to hand the visitors all three points in injury-time but a brilliant intervention from Zaliukas deflected his goalbound effort wide.