This has been a regular and costly issue which has blighted Watford. They've always been susceptible to late goals, but this season seems to be above average. The first significant late goal came at Spurs in controversial fashion. Dele Ali handled the ball before scoring in the 87th minute. Here is a full list below. Spurs (a ) 1-1 (Ali 87) 2 points dropped Everton (a ) Carabao Cup 0-2 (Richarlison 93) Burnley (h ) 0-3 Barnes 82, Tarkovski (88) Southampton (a ) 1-2 (Ings 79, Ward-Prowse, 83) 3 points dropped Leicester (a ) 0-2 (Maddison 95) Liverpool (a ) 0-2 (Salah, 90) Tranmere (FA Cup) 3-3 (Monte 78, Mullin 87) Aston Villa (a ) 1-2 (Mings, 95) 1 point dropped Everton (h) 2-3 (Walcott, 90) 1 point dropped Brighton (a ) 1-1 (Mariappa OG, 78) 2 points dropped Man Utd (a ) 0-3 (Greenwood, 76) Leicester (h ) 1-1 (Chilwell, 90) Southampton (h ) 1-3 (Ward-Prowse, 83) Chelsea (a ) 0-3 (Barkley 93) You can see we've dropped 9 points due to late goals. That's massive in the context of this season. For balance, we've scored three late goals, but only Dawson's 93rd minute goal against Leicester has been significant. Giving us a point from a game we nearly lost.....to a 90th minute goal. 9 of those goals have occurred from the 87th minute onwards, and 7 of those from 90th minute onwards. Don't forget how close we came to conceding at home to Spurs in the 93rd minute. Pussetto's 11mm clearance saved us a point in that game. So, in total this season, we've conceded 17 goals (in all competitions) in the last 15 minutes of games. Scored only 3 in reply. It's a huge problem and has cost us 9 points.
I seem to remember before the lockdown that the team was knackered after playing for about an hour and then got overrun in games. Since the return from lockdown the team has looked knackered from the first drinks break.
