Watford shook off an awful first-half display to grab a 2-1 victory over Preston, who suffered their fifth defeat in six league games.<\/p>\n
Callum Lang had shot the visitors ahead in the sixth minute as the visitors threatened to overrun the Hornets, who hit back with two second-half goals in seven minutes from Edo Kayembe and Mamadou Doumbia.<\/p>\n
Injuries meant that Watford boss Alessio Dionisi was limited to eight substitutes – including two goalkeepers.<\/p>\n
![\"Paul](\"https:\/\/e0.365dm.com\/26\/09\/768x432\/skysports-paul-heckingbottom_7345493.jpg?20260908215102\")
\n <\/div>\n Paul Heckingbottom’s Preston have lost five of their opening six games
\n <\/span>
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
But the Hornets made a lively start, with winger Rocco Vata breaking into the box from the left only to see his shot blocked by Preston keeper Daniel Iversen.<\/p>\n
The visitors replied by scoring from their first attack.<\/p>\n
Johnny Kenny, in his first start for Preston, won a corner on the left, Alfie Devine’s kick found Jordan Thompson just outside the D via a smart stepover by Leo Leroy and the midfielder fired in a shot that home keeper Federico Ravaglia could only push on to his left-hand post.<\/p>\n
Lang pounced on the rebound to score from close range despite Ravaglia’s efforts to scoop the ball to safety – Lang’s third goal in two games.<\/p>\n
Preston should have gone 2-0 up in the 18th minute. Kenny sprinted down the left with the home defence nowhere and his perfect cross found the feet of Lang, who fired straight at Ravaglia.<\/p>\n
Nevertheless, the visitors continued to look by far the better, more composed side as they dominated the first half.<\/p>\n
Dionisi rolled the dice at the break, sending on Othmane Maamma, Iker Bravo and Leicester loanee Stephy Mavididi in place of Rocco Vata, Martin Payero and Amin Nabizada.<\/p>\n
However, as the second half wore on, it seemed that Preston would stretch their unbeaten run at Vicarage Road to five games.<\/p>\n
The Hornets threatened very little, and their first raid after the break came in the 55th minute when skipper and centre-back Mattie Pollock ventured upfield only to fire over the bar.<\/p>\n
There should have been more woe for the Vicarage Road faithful just before the hour when Preston wasted another great chance.<\/p>\n
Lilywhites defender Harry Clarke was allowed to take a stroll through the home box but scuffed his shot, allowing Ravaglia to push the ball against the post before scrambling it to safety.<\/p>\n
Preston should have been at least 3-0 up, and they paid dearly for those misses when Kayembe equalised in the 69th minute.<\/p>\n
Maamma had been switching wings and his time he danced in from the left before his low cross set up a gleeful Kayembe for the leveller.<\/p>\n
Preston lost the plot as Watford seized the lead seven minutes later. The threat this time came down the right as Bravo crossed for striker Doumbia to head home from a narrow angle.<\/p>\n
The managers<\/h3>\n
Watford’s Alessio Dionisi:<\/em><\/p>\n To follow…<\/em><\/p>\n Preston’s Paul Heckingbottom:<\/em><\/p>\n To follow…<\/em><\/p>\n Watford shook off an awful first-half display to grab a 2-1 victory over Preston, who…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2073,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2072","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-premier-league"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/sportbulletin.top\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/skysports-paul-heckingbottom_7345493.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportbulletin.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2072","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportbulletin.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportbulletin.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportbulletin.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportbulletin.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2072"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sportbulletin.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2072\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportbulletin.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2073"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportbulletin.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportbulletin.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2072"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportbulletin.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}What the result means and next fixtures…<\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"