Wolves 4 Watford 0: Jimenez, Podence and Neves strike as home side score three in just 21 minutes against awful Hornets
BEN FOSTER will not want to watch this one back on his GoPro.
It was ten years since he helped Roy Hodgson engineer a Black Country derby romp at Molineux.
Hodgson plotted West Brom’s 5-1 win against their arch-rivals Wolves with Peter Odemwingie scoring a hat-trick and Foster in between the sticks in 2012.
But this time Wolves got the last laugh as the usually dependable shot stopper produced a disastrous cock-up to hand Bruno Lage’s side their third goal in the 4-0 romp.
On 21 minutes he slipped and scuffed a shocking clearance straight at Podence to gleefully swing it home from 25 yards.
The first three goals all came within just eight minutes, and Raul Jimenez was on target for the first time in a month to get the hosts in the driving seat.
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The horror show continued when Cucho Hernandez doubled the lead with a kamikaze own goal before Foster’s howler and Ruben Neves wrapped things up.
It was a sweet night for Wolves, who had lost three games on the spin but are now back flirting with the top of the table.
Whereas Watford remain marooned in the relegation zone with just five wins all season.
From the offset Podence was causing havoc down the right side and he had the first real sniff with a promising free-kick, but cracked it straight at the Watford wall.
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The visitors had a penalty shout early on when Hernandez was mowed down by Rayan Ait-Nouri, but the flag was up for offside in the build up.
And the home fans got the last laugh when their side ruthlessly hit back with three quick-fire goals.
The first arrived thanks to a pretty passing sequence between Podence and Hee Chan Hwang who gave Jimenez the simple task of slotting home from six-yards on 13 minutes.
Things went from bad to worse just five minutes later as Wolves pounced on the Hornets’ sleepy defence.
An inch-perfect cross floated to an unmarked Ait-Nouri whose shot was turned in by Hernandez and beyond Foster who flapped between the sticks.
It stirred chants of ‘Foster what’s the score?’ and he clearly was feeling the pressure before the shambolic third goal on 21 minutes.
Fuming Hodgson had seen enough of the massacre and hauled off Kiko Femenia for Christian Kabasele just before the half-hour mark.
It shored things up for a little while but it didn’t take long for Hwang and Jimenez to link up again to give the visitors another heart in mouth moment.
You had to feel for Foster who was fed to the Wolves fans after the break as it was his turn to stand in front of the South Bank.
The home fans chanted ‘Albion reject’ and ‘shove your GoPro up your a***’ while there were also shouts for their players to shoot from the half-way line.
The ex-Baggies keeper didn’t exactly help himself when he panicked and passed straight at Podence again.
The pocket rocket Portuguese star pulled the trigger against long-range but Foster was thanking his lucky stars when he managed to collect it.
Hassane Kamara didn’t make life easy for the under-pressure shot stopper and twice let Podence wriggle beyond him.
Hodgson then couldn’t quite believe what was unfolding in front of him when a Podence shot ricocheted off Craig Cathcart and nearly diverted into his own net.
Foster then did brilliantly to keep out a rasping close-range Jimenez effort.
The home fans continued to make life hell for Foster and refused to give the ball back to him when it was fired into the stands late on
And Neves hammered the final nail in Watford’s coffin by picking the ball up from 20-yards out, advancing into the box and dinking a cheeky chip over Foster.
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