World News – GB – ‘Aggrieved’ – Martin O’Neill defeats as Powell impresses

Michael O’Neill watched his Stoke City side get defeated by Watford in a five-goal thriller at Vicarage Road

We take a detailed look at last night’s events, starting with the player ratings, then Michael O’Neill’s reaction, and of course, the refereeing decisions

Gunn: At the center of the drama for the first goal and remained helpless for the second 6

Fox: He had his work cut out for him trying to keep his hands on Sarr and Femenia 6

Powell: good game to configure Fletcher Neat finish for the equalizer Pressed and stuck also 8

McClean: A night full of scouting to try to deal with the threat from Watford on their right 6

Brown (for Fletcher, 66): Added new energy to Stoke’s frontline but couldn’t stop the cross for Watford 5’s third

Watford: Foster, Femenia, Cathcart, Kabasele, Wilmot, Sema, Capoue, Cleverley (Garner, 62), Chalobah (Hughes, 89), Sarr, Joao Pedro (Gray, 62) Submarines: Bachmann, Ngakia , Troost-Ekong, Deeney

Referee: Andy Davies (Hampshire) A night that will haunt Stoke players and fans for a long time What was he thinking? 2

Michael O’Neill admitted he had been « very aggrieved » by a bizarre incident that caught up with Stoke City at Watford

Stoke was leading 1-0 thanks to Steven Fletcher when Angus Gunn tipped Tom Cleverley’s shot on the crossbar – and choked the ball on the rebound when it was bagged off the line by Joao Pedro

Referee Andy Davies reported that his watch told him the ball was over the line and gave the goal – to the amazement of Stoke players who protested the foul

Davies was called in to discuss the incident with fourth official James Linington – and reruns and even virtual reruns made it clear what had happened – but there is no VAR in the Championship

Stoke, who had passed Steven Fletcher, then fell behind on a Joao Pedro penalty before Nick Powell equalized – and there was more controversy as Ismaila Sarr scored the winner for Watford in the additional time

O’Neill said: « We didn’t think (the first one) was a goal Looking back and seeing the reruns on TV, I think it’s clear that the shot didn’t cross the line. line, then the technology is triggered by the player of Watford and Angus, which puts the ball above the line

« We felt very aggrieved by the goal, but I found our reaction to be very good

« We are falling behind in the game The penalty is poor, we lose the ball in a bad area and don’t clear it, but the way we are reacting is excellent

« And then we feel the referee missed a handball in the preparation for the third goal as well Overall it was one of those nights we felt we deserved something, that we didn’t have got nothing, and we have to deal with it and move on to the next game »

He added: « The technology tells them, but they also have to watch the events On this occasion, the technology has not helped them without technology, I don’t think it would have given the goal It was the technology that told him the goal was there

« But I think in this case, when you review the events, the decision was very hard on us »

O’Neill was asked if the referee should have had the opportunity, in an ideal world, to watch an instant replay to judge whether the ball crossed the line before or after Gunn suffered a fault

He said: « The technology is there to let the referee know if the ball has crossed the line but in the whole of events maybe the referee missed the foul, or what we feel like. the fault, in everything that happened

« This is where we think the technology can’t support this. If he sees it, he can possibly look at the situation and make a more informed decision

« There was also some time before the tech was triggered – but I can’t add anything more about that

« It went against us tonight, maybe between now and the end of the season we will enjoy it too »

Watford manager Vladimir Ivic said: « At the first moment I couldn’t see what had happened, but at halftime I heard that maybe we had had luck with this decision I still haven’t seen the goals for the match But we can’t just talk about this goal

« This is not the first time that we have been passive at the start of the game. We started playing after the goal and this is something we need to correct

“After that we were the team that dominated, created the chances, scored a goal – I said about that – and then we missed a fantastic chance

« I think you have seen some progress in our game If you talk about attacking and crossing movement we know we can do better and our goal is to get better and better »

Stoke City will have nightmares about referee Andy Davies after a bizarre moment changes what had been a promising night’s work at Vicarage Road

Stoke had taken the lead with a well-worked corner routine after just a minute and a half that gave Stoke the opener thanks to Steven Fletcher

But just before the half hour there was a weird equalizer when Watford, when referee Davies set the clock back in Nat Lofthouse’s time, with misused scoring technology

The decision seemed to put Stoke out of his stride, but there was no excuse for giving away a penalty halfway through the second half, which gave Joao Pedro a chance to give the benefit to hosts

But it was Ismaila Sarr who had the last laugh when he cut extra time – after Davies missed a handball – to sink the all-important third and send Watford to the fourth In such a tight top half, Stoke is now 11th

Michael O’Neill named an unchanged starting XI from the side that beat Rotherham this weekend, which itself had six changes

Billy McKinlay explained: « It’s a bit of everything really I think the performance (against Rotherham) we played better, let’s put it this way We got the win after the bad result against Swansea and we got back on the horse, so to speak

« I think sometimes when you make changes it allows you to repeat the same thing, if it doesn’t seem too opposite Players can go »

Tyrese Campbell landed a corner to the right and Nick Powell played short to Jordan Thompson to face John Obi Mikel, whose slide rule pass allowed Powell to run into the zone to leave Fletcher free to push beyond Ben Foster

It could have been two moments later when Foster was forced to direct a back pass under pressure from Campbell and Fletcher intercepted a subsequent poor clearance and attempted a brace with Powell, which almost did. enter the goal

Watford looked dangerous on their wings, especially on the right where Kiko Femenia hooked up with Sarr

But their crosses were meat and drink to Danny Batth and Harry Souttar until a moment of great controversy in the 28th minute

Sarr did well again on the right and his ball was well taken by Tom Cleverley to turn and shoot Gunn dove to his left and rocked the effort up and under the bar, spinning to collect him as he seemed to bounce just off the right side of the line

But then came Joao Pedro to challenge the ball He came after Gunn and grabbed him, like he forced the keeper and everything he was holding right over the line

Referee Davies’s watch indicated that the ball had crossed the line and with a quick glance but with no response from his linesman, he gave the goal

The fourth official, James Linington, summoned Davies for an emergency conversation by the unearthed as the Stoke players looked puzzled and wondered if the referee’s watch had transported the game to the 1950s Davies turned to his linesman for further assistance, but still got nothing and pointed to the center circle again

The decision threw away Stoke and Gunn had to defend one-on-one seconds later to prevent Watford from taking the lead

At halftime, the home side had 66% possession and one of the strangest decisions of the season in their favor, but the scores were even

Stoke was still protesting to the referee when they came out for the restart and Watford continued on the front foot

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Still, it was Stoke who carved himself a decent chance when Campbell fed Tommy Smith to have Fletcher head next door

But it was Watford who got the next all-important goal A Danny Batth error let Sarr in in the middle and once the striker hit him past Gunn Gunn dragged him to the ground

Joao Pedro tucked in the penalty in the lower left corner as Gunn dove to his left

Andre Gray could have made three when Christian Kabasele broke down on the right and crossed to find him at the last post.The header was wide and Stoke looked like he was cracking

O’Neill changed his system, going 3-4-3 replacing Tommy Smith with Sam Vokes, pushing Jacob Brown to the right-back and having Campbell and Powell on either side of Vokes

Campbell brought the ball back by Powell saw it open and cracked in a side-zone shot

Powell might have had a second almost right away too when McClean brought the ball up the field and made a cross for Campbell, who drew in defenders then made the box for Powell who skied his shot

Powell looked on his last legs at the time and it was his last touch, brought in to get everyone on Stoke’s bench to fives

But the job wasn’t done and Ken Sema got to the sideline in six minutes of added time to step back for Sarr to pass Gunn into the net

It was a punch in the stomach one night for Stoke when they had already been out of breath

Watford FC, Stoke City FC, EFL Championship, Ismaïla Sarr, Michael O’Neill