Holloway had no choice but to shuffle the pack after Furlong’s red card but he sprang a surprise in his starting XI. Royce was in goal behind the usual back four of Bignot, Evatt, Shittu and Dyer. The midfield was unchanged with Ainsworth, Doherty, Santos and Gallen all keeping their places. This meant that Sturridge was partnered up front by Moore. Cook and Nygaard were fit enough to take their places on the bench.

From the off the pattern seemed to be set with Watford looking to exploit the explosive pace of Young, King and McNamee and Rangers punting long balls to two strikers ill equipped to deal with them. The Hornets seemed to be targeting Evatt in particular given his somewhat alarming lack of pace.

McNamee forced a brilliant save from Royce during a spell of incessant Watford pressure. They forced a host of corners until one was finally cleared out of the box rather than behind. The little winger steadied himself a bent a shot over the defence and seemingly into the net. Royce somehow managed to snake up an arm to turn the ball over the top.

Ashley Young then managed to break through and in keeping with what I have seen of him this season, had a blast at goal. Luckily his shot was well off target but it could have easily been another to add to his collection of belters this year. King then worked an opening with a lovely turn only to be denied by the onrushing Royce. As with Saturday the keeper was on fire.

With six minutes to go until the break Watford took the lead. A ball in from McNamee on the left was headed down at the far post by King. The only player who seemed to react was Hornets midfielder Matthew Spring and he was on hand to nod home from close range. It was poor defending as nobody seemed to track his run in from the edge of the box and the challenge on King in the first place was severely lacking.

It could have been 2-0 shortly after when the R’s defence parted like the Red Sea and James Chambers strolled through. The twin brother of former Rangers trialist Adam was unopposed until Royce once again came to the rescue with a last ditch save. At the other end Santos rampaged upfield and slipped a great ball into the feet of Moore but when a challenge from Chambers was about to come in he shied away.

Half time came and in truth there had only been one team in it. Had it not been for Royce then the game would have been over already. At the other end the only trouble Ben Foster had faced were some slightly iffy looking back passes from Carlisle and DeMerit. There had not been one shot on target from Rangers and there were not too many more off it either.

Olly rang the changes at half time with Ainsworth and Santos coming off and Cook and Nygaard coming on. Gallen moved into the middle of midfield and Moore moved onto the right wing. As expected, Cook’s introduction was met with a crescendo of abuse from the fans that used to idolise him. Carlisle was getting similar treatment although for wholly different reasons.

The change was immediate as there was suddenly a focal point to the attacks and some penetration down one flank at least. This was a damn sight more than there had been in a first half lacking in imagination and more worryingly, ability.

Rangers were pushing on to try and get the equaliser now and this meant that Watford were able to create chances as they had in the first period. Marlon King missed a great chance when McNamee floated a lovely ball in but he could only head straight at the keeper.

Things were looking a lot brighter now and Rangers went on to dominate the game for twenty odd minutes. Nygaard was switching play to either flank and Cook was beginning to have some joy against Lloyd Doyley at right back. Still, for all the possession in decent areas there was only one clear cut chance to show for it.

Sturridge seized on through ball and ran clear of the Watford defence. He drew Foster and tried to dink the ball over him only for the keeper to deflect it high into the air. It seemed to take an age to come down and when it did it looked as though it had gone in from the away end. Unfortunately it had cleared the bar, much to the amusement of the Watford fans.

Nygaard missed out on a far post header and Rangers forced a few corners in succession without ever really troubling Foster. Then, with twenty minutes left, Watford doubled their lead through McNamee.

Watford launched a quick counter attack and managed to leave the R’s defence in disarray. They all seemed to be sucked across and this left McNamee in acres of space in the area to the right of Royce’s goal. King shifted the ball to him and he had a simple task to blast past Royce. And that was it, Rangers seemed to give up and the heads dropped badly.

Six minutes later and it was 3-0 thanks to a lucky goal. Referee Atkinson, who had reffed the game well thus far, harshly penalised Langley, now on for Moore, and Ashley Young came across to take the freekick from the Watford left wing. His in swinging effort evaded everyone and went in at Royce’s far post. It was very reminiscent of an effort Gino scored at Brighton a couple of seasons ago.

With the third goal going in the away end began to empty at a rate of knots. Nygaard came close to pulling one back when he sent a volley goalward as he fell backwards in the box. Foster was scrambling across his goal but the ball drifted wide.

Gallen was forced off injured for the final few minutes and whilst he was off Rangers did pull a consolation goal back. As they did against Wolves on Saturday, Watford switched off with the game won and allowed Shittu to head his third of the season from a Cook corner. It made little odds and the game was soon over.

This was a lacklustre display and as I mentioned before, Saturday seemed to have sapped the minds as well as the legs and Rangers never got going. Watford will play better than this and not win as easily this season and the only time there was a game on was the first twenty minutes of the second half. Once the second went in it was all over bar the shouting and the third compounded the misery still further.

What the game did show us is that Ainsworth is not capable of two games in a week, that Cook and Nygaard are vital to the side, that Moore needs a spell in the reserves and that Royce is a top class keeper. We will need to play a hell of a lot better than this against Reading on Saturday or they could give us an old fashioned doing.

simon@qprnet.com