Boss applauds duo

King: On the mark

Watford manager Adrian Boothroyd hailed the performance of strikers Marlon King and Darius Henderson after the pair inspired his side to a 3-0 victory at Coventry.

King scored one and made the other two - one of them for Henderson - as the Hornets made it nine games unbeaten in the Championship and extended their lead at the top to nine points.

The duo's now have 14 goals between them and Boothroyd believes there is still more to come.

"I think they are very good," Boothroyd said.

"They keep scoring and there are times when they look telepathic and there are times when they haven't met each other before.

Threat

"But that will come the more they play together and of course we have (Tamas) Priskin and Nathan Ellington on the bench so we know there's always that threat there that if they don't do it others can come in."

He added: "Marlon's done very well. By his own admission he didn't start the season very well but now I think he's in terrific form."

First Adam Johnson latched onto King's lofted pass after half an hour before the former Nottingham Forest forward scored his fourth goal in as many games to double the lead two minutes before the break.

Just seconds into the second half, the game was wrapped up when Henderson completed a move King began, clinically firing low into the bottom corner before City keeper David Marshall even had chance to move.

Miserable

Coventry have now won just one of their last eight league games, capping a miserable day after a transfer embargo was placed on the club for their failure to keep up with payments to Southampton for the transfer of Leon Best.

"We were beaten by a side that were a bit better than us," manager Iain Dowie admitted.

"When you give away three very soft goals, you are giving yourself a mountain to climb.

"They are very good at what they do, they have been able to build on it, they are a long time in the making.

"They are a powerful side and we at times coped with it very well and at other times we didn't."

To make matters worse, Dowie now looks set to be without Gary Borrowdale, who was stretchered off with an ankle injury, and Stephen Hughes, who suffered a fractured cheekbone.

Not that the Sky Blues manager will be complaining.

"You have got to say well done Watford, you will not hear me making any excuses or moaning about it, you just get on with it," he said.

"What I don't want to is undermine what the lads have done today. There is too much character and desire from the lads for me to be talking about embargoes."