Watford keep automatic promotion hopes alive by beating Middlesbrough

Watford ended a sequence of two matches without a victory by recording a 2-0 win over Middlesbrough to keep their automatic promotion hopes alive in the Championship.

Goals either side of half time from Troy Deeney and Odion Ighalo have seen the hosts keep in touch with the top two.

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Boro actually controlled large amounts of the possession, particularly during the first half, but they were unable to make it count.

Their best opening to break the deadlock fell the way of Lee Tomlin in the 33rd minute, but the attacking midfielder could only guide his volley straight at Watford goalkeeper Heurelho Gomes.

Then, just four minutes later, Deeney fired the home side in front. Boro centre-back Jonathan Woodgate misjudged the flight of Adlene Guedioura's deep cross and Deeney capitalised by taking one touch, before finding the far corner of Dimitrios Konstantopoulos's net.

It was the captain's eighth goal in nine outings and also saw him become the first Watford player in history to score 20 goals in three successive seasons.

Just as they had done in the opening 45 minutes, Boro saw plenty of the ball after the restart, but they found it tough to carve out genuine goalscoring chances.

There was no such problem for Watford, who doubled their advantage in the 65th minute. Ben Watson picked out Ighalo on the edge of the box and, having worked himself enough space, the Nigerian powered a left-footed shot into the top corner of the net for his 15th goal of 2015.

As the game drew to a close, Guedioura forced Konstantopoulos to make an acrobatic save, while up the other end Boro full-back George Friend dragged his effort wide after some neat build-up play.