Watford 1-0 Hull City: Moussa Sissoko keeps Watford play-off hopes alive
Report and free match highlights from the Sky Bet Championship match between Watford and Hull City at Vicarage Road on Tuesday night; Moussa Sissoko scores only goal to keep Hornets' play-off hopes alive.
Tuesday 8 April 2025 22:54, UK
Hull passed up a chance to ease their relegation worries after Moussa Sissoko's second-half goal earned Watford a 1-0 win at Vicarage Road.
Former France midfielder Sissoko, 35, netted in the 55th minute to give the Hornets' slim chances of making the play-offs a timely boost.
Ruben Selles' Tigers put in a tepid performance that leaves them with much work still to be done before the end of the season.
Edo Kayembe almost fired Watford ahead after barely half a minute but saw his thunderbolt from the best part of 30 yards bounce back off the angle of the goal frame.
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It took a while for Hull to muster a reply but Charlie Hughes, scorer of a brilliant stoppage-time winner at Sheffield Wednesday on Saturday, eventually fired a long-range effort at home goalkeeper Egil Selvik.
Matt Crooks then burst through down the inside right channel but his drive from the edge of the box flashed well away from the Watford goal.
Sissoko was booked for a challenge that saw Hull forward Joao Pedro scream in apparent agony, with the home fans then booing a speedy recovery that saw him head at Selvik soon after.
The final throes of a disappointing half saw Watford's Rocco Vata miscue a decent opportunity from 12 yards and City's Steven Alzate fire over acrobatically from further out at the other end.
Jeremy Ngakia fired across goal and wide within 20 seconds of the restart as Watford again started with intent. Vata then saw an effort deflected behind before Ngakia was again off target from distance.
James Abankwaah's error at the back almost cost the Hornets but when Crooks played Pedro in he fired straight at Selvik.
It was to prove costly as Watford opened the scoring at the other end in the 55th minute. Caleb Wiley, the 20-year-old Chelsea loanee, exchanged passes with Vata down the left and crossed for Sissoko to leap and flick home from close range.
Hull struggled to create any clear opportunities to level, although Sean McLoughlin sent a back-post header into the gloves of Selvik with just over 10 minutes remaining.
McLoughlin then missed his kick after ex-Hornet Nordin Amrabat, on as a substitute, had found him in space in the box. Alzate fired over soon after and that was that for Hull, who saw relegation rivals pick up points elsewhere.
The managers
Watford's Tom Cleverley:
"I thought he was outstanding all night. He is an inspiration to the young players on how to live your life and what an elite player looks like.
"You only have to look at his international caps to see that. We have senior heads in there but Moussa is the flag-bearer. I couldn't be more proud of a team that has three teenagers.
"In the second half we came out with a spark, got the goal and then managed the game really well.
"We have played a lot better than that this season and not got maximum points, especially recently, but we have got to look at what we are working with - players who have not played many games in their careers. They will all learn from this experience."
Hull's Ruben Selles:
"The result was not what we wanted. We were competitive but we lacked a little bit of cleanness in the final third - the final pass, the final finish.
"Sometimes you don't get the result you want. We need to get more from the games we play. When I came in we were rock bottom. We had to fight for everything and we're still in that fight.
"We are trying and we are showing that we are competitive. There are fine margins in the game and we need to keep fighting.
"There was no lack of urgency. We had an emergency situation in the first 20 or 30 seconds with a shot from 30 metres (from Edo Kayembe) that hit our bar but we managed to get back into the game.
"The second half started the same way, but we got back into the game. We didn't create that final moment and we need to continue to develop our performances in the final third."
