It was all smiles for Watford at Vicarage Road as they ended a run of three defeats but there was increasing depression for Cardiff City after this their fourth consecutive reverse.
"I'm bitterly disappointed. Our defending was woeful. I warned the players at half time not to get too deep or let the ball bounce and they did just that to concede the equaliser," said City boss Lennie Lawrence.
"I'm increasingly concerned about our situation. Any cushion we had in the First Division has been wiped out by our own ineptitude.
"We are still in mid-table but unless we put this right and stop the rot we will start looking behind us." While Lawrence was complaining about the quality of defending his Watford counterpart Ray Lewington was similarly disappointed with the goal they conceded.
"We had not been in any trouble and then gave away a terrible goal.
"We've had a few hard luck stories this season and I was worried in case the players started feeling sorry for themselves," said Lewington.
"As it was we kept going, battled away and showed character to get just what we needed. We are not certain who scored the winner, but it was nice to see a few bodies in the box trying to score in the last few minutes." Substitute Danny Webber sent over the cross which led to the goal in the 88th minute. Watford appealed for a goal when Heidar Helguson's header hit the inside of the post and went across the goalmouth.
Lee Cook prodded the ball back towards the net where Martyn Margetson blocked, with Watford again appealing.
The linesman flagged that the ball had crossed the line as Gavin Mahon, following up, thumped the ball into the roof of the net.
Earlier Watford had been thwarted by Margetson who made good first-half saves to deny Cook and Helguson.
Cardiff were unable to threaten, apart from a couple of free-kicks which Alec Chamberlain read well.
City took an unexpected lead on 52 minutes when a Spencer Prior flick-on set up Peter Thorne to crash the ball home from eight yards.
Awful City defending on the hour allowed Scott Fitzgerald to force an error and nip between two defenders to move clear and hit the equaliser.