Rotherham United remain just three points clear of the Championship relegation zone following a 3-0 defeat at the hands of Watford this evening.

Odion Ighalo bagged a double for the hosts either side of Troy Deeney's strike to ensure that Watford remain inside the playoff zone in sixth place.

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The Hornets dominated the early stages of the game, coming closest to finding a way through when Daniel Tozser blasted over from the edge of the box.

They did not have to wait much longer after that squandered chance to make the breakthrough, however, as Ighalo dispossessed Kari Arnason before rounding Adam Collin to tap the ball into an empty net.

Collin was needed to keep out both Almen Abdi and Deeney as the home side went in search of a second, although the best stop of the lot came at the end of Joel Ekstrand's near-post flick which looked destined for the back of the net.

Rotherham had a few openings of their own as Matt Derbyshire plugged away, firing in a couple of shots as he looked to help his team level things up, although some good defending and solid keeping from Heurelho Gomes to deny Arnason saw Watford go into the break ahead.

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It took just 10 minutes of the second half before the Hornets found a second courtesy of Deeney's strike, which came about after Ekstrand latched on to a rebound to square the ball to his teammate, who made no mistake in prodding the ball home.

Rotherham heads dropped at that stage, and less than a minute later Ighalo tapped home a third when Miguel Layun's shot was parried into his path by Collin.

Tommie Hoban, brought back into the side this evening in one of two changes, almost added his name to the scoresheet by cutting inside and firing narrowly over, while Abdi saw his shot come back off the post at the death.

In the end it mattered little in the grand scheme of things as Watford saw out the game with relative ease to keep a grip of that final playoff berth.