Millwall vs Watford. Sky Bet Championship.
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Report and free match highlights from the Sky Bet Championship clash between Millwall and Watford at The Den as Tom Bradshaw scored three goals in the first half to earn victory for the Lions on Wednesday night.
Wednesday 19 October 2022 23:28, UK
Tom Bradshaw's stunning first-half hat-trick powered Millwall to a 3-0 victory over woeful Watford at the Den.
Bradshaw struck three times in just over half an hour to give Gary Rowett's men their third successive win in a game they controlled throughout, moving them one point off the Championship play-off places.
It took just eight minutes for Bradshaw to open his account for the evening, as he latched onto a long goal-kick that was not dealt with by centre-back Mattie Pollock on his first Championship start for the visitors, before deftly lofting the ball over Daniel Bachmann.
The early strike roared the hosts into life as they began to dominate the game, with Jake Cooper nearly adding a second after 17 minutes as his header was tipped over the bar by Bachmann, before Bradshaw almost scrambled home a second after the resulting corner was not cleared.
It was an early warning that the Hornets did not heed, with the Watford backline unable to deal with long balls into their penalty area.
Just 10 minutes later, the Lions had their second courtesy of a long free-kick launched into the box.
Centre-back Cooper rose highest, his header finding Mason Bennett unmarked on the left-hand side of the box before he passed across goal to give Bradshaw the simplest of tap-ins.
And it was three with just 33 minutes on the clock, as another free-kick into the box was not dealt with by Watford with Cooper again causing all sorts of problems.
His flicked header found Bradshaw in the box before the striker showed great composure to find space and fire home to complete his hat-trick.
Watford did look to get themselves back into the match, with striker Keinan Davis leading the charge but he cut a frustrated figure up top as he led a seemingly solo mission for the visitors.
The Aston Villa loanee came closest in the first half for Slaven Bilic's side as his fierce strike was deflected wide after 35 minutes but it was the hosts who looked more likely to score again before the break.
It was a long throw into the box that this time caused the issue for Watford but Cooper was unable to turn from provider to scorer as he tried to force the ball home from close range.
Bilic rang the changes at half-time, with Joao Pedro and Samuel Kalu entering the fray, but it made little difference as the visitors huffed and puffed but failed to trouble George Long in the Millwall goal, as the hosts saw out a comfortable victory with an uneventful second half.
Millwall's Gary Rowett: "It's the best result of the season, it's the best scoreline of the season. I thought the way we started the game was the best we'd started at home against a very good side. I felt we needed to start aggressively; I probably didn't expect us to start quite so aggressively.
"It was almost horribly beautiful. They couldn't deal with it and the players just thought let's keep doing it. Three good goals, I thought we had some other good opportunities and limited them to a lot of long-range efforts and not too many clear-cut chances. We allowed a few late on which I was a bit disappointed with because I wanted a clean sheet but overall, I thought it was absolutely outstanding."
Watford's Slaven Bilic: "It was a bad evening for us. Three very simple goals, three goals from the situation that we knew they were good at. We prepared the team for that, but it was very cheap. It was nothing new from them, and chapeau from them they do it really well.
"It (consistency) is key. The couple of wins we've had came after a week of training. Every time we have a game two or three days later, we are not on the level that is required. We have to fix it as soon as possible. Maybe we are not physically or mentally fit enough to do it every three days?"
