Roy Hodgson said his Watford team were “running out of time” to preserve their Premier League status after being thrashed at Wolves.
The hosts scored three times in the opening 21 minutes as they recorded their biggest top-flight win since 2011 to keep Watford in the relegation zone, three points from safety.
Watford, who have won just one of their last 16 league games, missed the opportunity to move level on points with fourth-bottom Everton and, worryingly for them, they have also played more matches than the sides immediately above them and have a worse goal difference.
“It was disappointing in every respect,” Hodgson said.
“We have a very sad dressing room. That is what we sign up for. It gets hard when your players don’t care enough, but we are not in that position yet. We have to hold our hands up that we are not good enough at times, but not that they don’t care.
“All the goals are mistakes, some are clearer mistakes than others. These players need to feel anxiety because we are running out of time.”
A catastrophic start saw Raul Jimenez turn home a 13th-minute opener from Hwang Hee-chan’s short pass before a Cucho Hernandez own goal and a first-time Daniel Podence effort.
Ruben Neves rounded off the scoring with a magnificent chip five minutes from time as Wolves equalled their biggest Premier League win, matching their thrashing of Blackpool 11 years ago.
Watford have now taken five points from eight games under Hodgson and spent most of the second period on a damage-limitation exercise, failing to manage a single shot on target for the first time in 32 league games.
Wolves meanwhile can reflect on having scored three times in the first-half of Premier League game at Molineux for the first time since the April 2019 win against Arsenal. This was also the first time they had ever done a Premier League double over Watford.
The result also keeps Bruno Lage’s eighth-placed side in with a chance of securing a return to European football two seasons after reaching the Europa League quarter-finals.
Roy Hodgson has made no secret of his desire to bring defensive discipline to Watford, believing that if they are to succeed in their quest to avoid relegation, it will come through organisation.
The opening period must have come as a nasty shock.
Watford seemed unable to cope with a Wolves attack that has never been viewed as one of the more potent in the top flight.
Cucho Hernandez got his body position all wrong in turning Rayan Ait-Nouri’s cross into his own net while veteran keeper Ben Foster rushed himself into the scuffed clearance that Podence sent straight past him and into the empty net.
As the Wolves fans got stuck into Foster, who spent seven years at West Brom and two at Birmingham earlier in his lengthy career, Hodgson reacted by making his first change; Christian Kabasele for Kiko Femenia with only half an hour played.
Foster was at least spared the embarrassment of a second calamitous goal after half-time when he got back to save a repeat effort from Podence straight from another clearance.
However, he was not spared from further jeers from the Wolves support, who gleefully took every possible opportunity to remind him of the score.
This has been a difficult season for Pedro Neto, who took 10 months to recover from the fractured knee-cap he suffered against Fulham in April.
At the time, Neto was earning rave reviews and being linked with Juventus, Liverpool and Tottenham amongst others.
Although his absence halted that momentum, Wolves have not lost faith and this week gave the 22-year-old a new deal that runs to 2027.
This was the fifth game of his comeback and, with the points already assured, his half hour of action was the high-point of the second period for Wolves.
One far-post header brought a decent save out of Foster and, while an attempted volley from the angle of the penalty area was off target, he did set fellow substitute Fabio Silva.
There is clearly more to come from Neto but his cameo will have been welcomed by his manager.
Lage will have been equally delighted with how Neves wrapped up the win late on, chipping Foster from just inside the box having spotted the keeper off his line.
-BBC
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