Cucho Hernández at the double to give Watford vital win at Southampton

A game that started with Watford’s supporters deriding their team’s chances of starting next season in the Premier League ended with them revelling in victory and clinging on to hope of an unlikely escape.

Roy Hodgson earned his second win in charge to hoist Watford level on points with Everton, who remain outside of the relegation zone on goal difference. The obvious caveat is that teams above and below them are armed with games in hand but on this evidence Watford’s race is not yet run. Cucho Hernández scored twice as Southampton suffered a third straight defeat, with Mohamed Elyounoussi’s strike before half-time failing to ignite a fightback.

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Southampton began with great promise, Elyounoussi’s header cleared off the line by Samir with less than 90 seconds gone, but it did not last and Jan Bednarek’s desperate block to prevent João Pedro lashing a shot goalwards was a sign of things to come, even if the bulk of the travelling supporters seemed happy to make light of Watford’s shortcomings this season with a series of sarcastic chants.

It seemed apt that Hernández would open the scoring seconds after the away fans launched into a carousel of ‘Oles’ after stringing a few passes together. But Watford did not have to do too much to take the lead. Mohammed Salisu appeared uncomfortable after reluctantly accepting an awkward ball from his centre-back partner, Bednarek, and undercooked a back pass for Fraser Forster, who seemed to freeze in time, and a lurking Hernández nipped in to round the Southampton goalkeeper and coolly finish from an acute angle.

The Watford supporters who were bathing in the low sun went ballistic, but that did not stop