Watford 2 Cardiff City 1

Marlon King:

Promotion-chasing Watford fully deserved two major slices of good fortune on their way to making it eight wins in nine games.

The hard fought victory over a defence minded Cardiff City ensures the gap to second placed Sheffield United is reduced to just seven points, after the Yorkshiremen surprisingly lost at home to Queens Park Rangers.

The first came two minutes from time when a suicidal back pass from Riccardo Scimeca gave Marlon King the opportunity to net his 17th goal of the season and the winner.

Then deep into injury-time lady luck smiled on Watford again when a 25-yard curling free-kick from Jason Koumas bounced back off the post and Darren Purse just failed to convert the follow up with an effort that shaved the upright.

Had that gone in it would have been extremely harsh on the Hornets who dominated large parts of the game and could have had the points wrapped up by half-time.

Watford were in the attacking groove from the first whistle on a bright but freezing afternoon, and should have gone in front inside 60 seconds when Hameur Bouazza fired wide.

The pressure on the Cardiff City goal continued but to the Bluebirds' credit, it was a combination of great goalkeeping and superb last-ditch defending that kept them in the contest, rather than bad finishing from the home side.

Watford went close again when a header from Malky Mackay rebounded off the crossbar and Jay DeMerit's follow up was well saved by Neil Alexander.

Next Purse somehow managed to clear behind from near his goal-line as Mackay tried to latch onto a King cross.

But Alexander excelled just before the half hour when Mackay, who enjoyed a high number of goalscoring opportunities for a centre half, connected with a long throw from Lloyd Doyley, only to see the Cardiff City shot-stopper claw the ball away from inside his near post.

Alexander performed more heroics soon after, ducking down at his near post to divert away a Bouazza near post flick. However, Watford still looked odds-on to score as the ball fell invitingly for Mackay but his effort was cleared off the line.

Watford did not find chances as easy to come by in the opening part of the second half but the inevitable goal finally arrived when Mackay rose well at the back post to convert a Bouazza cross.

But having taken the lead their display so deserved, some defensive sloppiness then allowed the Welsh side to equalise when a Koumas ball from the right was allowed to run through to Jeff Whitley who beat Ben Foster with a neat left foot shot.

Scimeca's mistake when he was under no real pressure gave Watford the points, and his error ultimately cost his team vital ground in the race for the play-offs.

For the third placed Golden Boys, the gap is closed on Neil Warnock's beginning to falter Blades to just seven points, and with ten matches of the season remaining the race for automatic promotion remains well and truly on.

Golden Boys man of the match: Malky Mackay