Watford 2-1 Newcastle: First-half goals hand hosts win

Two first-half goals confirmed Watford's Premier League status and gave them their first win since early March as they saw off Newcastle 2-1 on Saturday in the Premier League.

Hosts Watford took the lead after just three minutes as Roberto Pereyra simply finished off a move involving Andre Gray, Troy Deeney and Abdoulaye Doucoure, and it was 2-0 on 28 minutes as Gray nodded home at the far post from Pereyra's cross.

Deeney saw a late first-half penalty saved by Martin Dubravka, before Ayoze Perez halved the deficit 10 minutes after the break with a fine far-post finish with the outside of his boot.

Newcastle pressed well but could not find a winner, meaning Watford go up to 13th, while Newcastle stay 10th.

Watford were quickest out of the stops and took the lead through Pereyra's finish from 10 yards, slotting home at the near post after Paul Dummett have failed to clear the ball in the box, allowing Doucoure to feed the Argentine to score.

It should have been 2-0 on seven minutes as Pereyra and then Deeney saw close-range efforts blocked by Dubravka, and the Newcastle goalkeeper was again at his best to deny Gray's effort from an angle inside the box.

Gray got his goal a minute later, however, heading into the empty net at the far post as Pereyra found a yard to cross from the left, over the stretch of Dubravka.

The managers

Javi Gracia: "I'm very proud to belong with this club, I am very happy here. In the end we are very happy because we achieved the objective, to stay in the Premier League again. We can say that now, not before."

Rafa Benitez: "The main thing was to stay up. Now we know we have to keep doing the same thing, but we're not doing that at the moment, so we'll see what happens.

"It's a question of showing what we are capable of doing. I feel like second half was the team we are used to seeing, the last game when we were winning a lot of games in a row."

via Sky Sports