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Birthday boy Cleverley wins it... then gets injured celebrating!

ADAM SHERGOLD at Vicarage Road

WATFORD boast plenty of attacking flair but their gritty ability to cling on to slender leads could prove just as crucial in any promotion bid this season. Here was an excellent example. Having gone ahead through Tom Cleverley on the stroke of half-time, they were already weathering mounting Burnley pressure when Hassane Kamara was sent off with nine minutes left.

But the way Watford defiantly put bodies on the line to safeguard the three points will greatly encourage their new manager Rob Edwards as he strives to return them to the Premier League. Burnley, who tumbled down into the Championship alongside the Hornets in May, took an awful long time to get going here and couldn’t profit from their numerical advantage despite openings late on. Josh Brownhill seemed eemed to have all their chances, hitting the crossbar in stoppage time. Vincent Kompany has overseen a drastic overhaul l of the squad he inherited, but it’s ’s now just four points oints from three games tto begin the campaign. Edwards handed a debut to midfielder Hamza Choudhury, who signed on loan from Leicester this week, and he was more than willing to snap into a tackle.

The water break due to the high temperatures was actually a first-half highlight because it took 32 minutes to see a decent chance — Watford winger Ismail SarrS blazing over after Joao Pedro picked him out with a deep cross. We’d not seen a shot on target until Cleverley (left), celebrating his 33rd birthday, rounded off a neat Watford move in first-half stoppage time. Burnley allowed the ball to bounce about 30 yards out and Ken Sema fed Sarr on the right.

Sema continued into the box, was played in by Sarr and cut the ball back for Cleverley to roll home. Bizarrely, Cleverley injured himself during the goal celebrations and had to be substituted at half-time.

Burnley desperately needed to improve and did with Brownhill forcing a smothering save from Daniel Bachmann and Samuel Bastien firing over early in the second half. Bachmann denied Brownhill a second time as Burnley ramped up the pressure late on.

With just under 10 minutes to go, Vitinho raced through only for last defender Kamara to drag him back and see red. Bachmann flew across his goal to keep out Brownhill from the resulting free-kick.

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2022-08-13T07:00:00.0000000Z

2022-08-13T07:00:00.0000000Z

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