Wolves punish woeful Watford with early goal blitz

WOLVERHAMPTON, England : Wolverhampton Wanderers scored three times in the opening 21 minutes as woeful Watford proved their own worst enemies in a 4-0 defeat at Molineux on Thursday, leaving the visitors firmly stuck in the Premier League relegation zone.

Raul Jimenez opened the scoring, before Watford midfielder Cucho Hernandez made it 2-0 with an own goal, and Daniel Podence profited from an error by goalkeeper Ben Foster. Ruben Neves scored a late fourth with a sublime chip.

Wolves, who had lost their last three games, remained in eighth place in the table with 43 points from 28 matches, while Watford are second-bottom with 19 points.

They started brightly but fell behind on 13 minutes as Hee-Chan Hwang’s ball into the six-yard box was turned in by Jimenez, who scored his sixth league goal of the season.

It went from bad to worse for the visitors as Rayan Ait-Nouri’s tame attempted cross at the back post hit Hernandez and went in.

Foster’s error on 21 minutes killed the game as a contest when the goalkeeper’s aimless pass out of defence was intercepted by Podence, whose shot from 30 yards sailed into an unguarded net.

Neves added the fourth when he was given time on the edge of the box to pick his spot and chip the ball over the floundering Foster.

(Reporting by Nick Said, editing by Ed Osmond)