Cardiff City 1-2 Watford: Ismaila Sarr nets winner as Hornets battle back

Watford made it back-to-back away wins as they beat Cardiff 2-1 to move up into the play-off places.

It was a fourth win in a row at Cardiff for the visitors and a fifth win in eight games under new boss Slaven Bilic.

The Hornets replaced Swansea in sixth place with goals from Francisco Sierralta and Ismaila Sarr completing their fight back after Cedric Kipre had given the home side the lead.

Cardiff got off to a blistering start and found themselves leading after only nine minutes. Even before then they had caused problems through the trickery of Jaden Philogene and the pace of Mark Harris, but the breakthrough came from a set piece.

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Skipper Joe Ralls stepped up to take a corner from the right and he found Kipre at the far post, who headed home unopposed.

The French defender managed to lose his marker, William Troost-Ekong, who ran into another Cardiff player in the box and allowed Kipre a free jump to find the bottom left corner.

That goal certainly woke up the visitors and it took them 31 minutes to get back on level terms.

In that time Kipre had to turn his attentions to defending as he first cleared off his own line after a shot from a narrow angle by Mario Gaspar had beaten Ryan Allsop in the home goal.

Then he was back in action blocking a shot inside the box from dangerman Joao Pedro.

As the pressure mounted, Watford saw more of the ball and from a corner swung in from the left by Ken Sema, Sierralta rose above Perry Ng to head home the equaliser.

Sema then had a fierce left-footed shot saved by Allsop low to his left and it stayed all-square up to the break.

Cardiff made another fast start after the break and Philogene showed his pace to burn off Sierralta and then his fancy footwork to get past Hassane Kamara, in a great run up the right wing that ended with a shot in the box that forced Daniel Bachmann into a flying save.

That brought the first of two home corners, but there was no end product for the fans to cheer. The Watford response was to plunder three successive corners of their own and create space for Sarr to fire just over the bar from the edge of the City area.

Sarr may have been inches wide on that occasion, but just before the hour mark he was on target with a header he knew little about from a Sema corner from the right.

What the managers said...

Interim Cardiff manager Mark Hudson: "The most disappointing thing is that for all their individual quality, we conceded from two corners. I was pleased we created the chances we did, we put them under pressure and then they had a good spell. But we were brave in the second half and showed we can take it to top teams.

"They've got individual quality, but they didn't hurt us from that. They hurt us from our own mistakes. The team showed a willingness to fight and a creative side, but there were two disappointing moments. If we hadn't conceded from those two set-plays we might have got more from the game."

Watford's Slaven Bilic: "I'm pleased with the three points, I'm pleased with the character shown by my side and I'm pleased we scored two goals - but we should be scoring more goals. What was missing was a cutting edge. In this kind of display we have to create many more chances with the quality we have up front. Today that was lacking. Great three points, great win, but we started sloppy, nowhere near what we wanted. We gave them a goal with a free header and we weren't good.

"After 20 minutes we started to play and we were dominant. We were switching sides with good moves and we were there all the time. We scored two unusual goals for us, but we showed character, spirit and determination. It was a great away win against a good team, but I don't remember a clear-cut chance from us. I watched Cardiff against Blackpool and in another couple of games and I told my players that they would be facing the best team we have met so far.

"Tonight, they weren't like that, they were a little bit heavy. They weren't so aggressive, perhaps because they scored the goal, and I told the guys we had to kill the game off. We needed our goalkeeper to make a couple of good saves. We should have scored more goals considering the amount of time we spent in their half."

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