Southampton missed two penalties as they were comfortably beaten at St Mary's 3-0 by Watford.
Hornets keeper is hero
Southampton missed two penalties as they were comfortably beaten at St Mary's 3-0 by Watford.
Both penalties were saved by Hornets keeper Richard Lee with the visitors responding with a brace by Tamas Priskin and a John Eustace goal to effectively kill the game by half-time.
Jon Harley put in a deep cross from the left which was met by Mathew Sadler who laid the ball into the path of Priskin and he stabbed the ball home from inside the penalty area.
Southampton were then given a chance to make amends from the spot in the 18th minute after Watford defender Adrian Mariappa fouled Ryan Smith inside the penalty area.
This time Wotton took the kick but Lee saved for a second time when he blocked a powerful low effort which went straight down the centre of the goal.
Watford took advantage 12 minutes later when Southampton failed to deal with a Lee Williamson corner and Eustace headed home from close range after Darren Ward's initial attempt had been blocked by Saints goalkeeper Kelvin Davis.
Priskin then trebled the lead four minutes before half-time when he created a shooting opportunity and drilled the ball past Davis and into the bottom-left corner of the net from inside the six-yard box.
Southampton pressed for an early goal after the interval but Lee continued to be in inspired form in the visitors goal.
First Lee cleared a dangerous corner from Lloyd James in the 52nd minute and then he parried a close-range shot from Adam Lallana three minutes later.
Saints were unable to find a away past an organised Watford defence who seemed happy to sit on their three-goal cushion and were largely restricted to speculative long-range attempts from Andrew Surman and Smith.
Lively
The lively Priskin posed Watford's biggest threat on the counter attack and he almost had a hat-trick in the
65th minute but could only screw his shot wide of Davis' goal when well placed.
Eustace and substitute John-Joe O'Toole were both guilty of failing to capitalise on good chances in the final 10 minutes while Davis saved well from Liam Henderson.
Saints also had a late chance to grab a consolation goal but Surman's shot flew past Lee's post from 20-yards out in injury-time.
But it was keeper Richard Lee who was the hero for the Hornets after he twice saved from the spot in the first half.
Lee conceeded the first penalty in the fourth minute, bringing down David McGoldrick in the box, but the keeper recovered to stop McGoldrick's effort.
Priskin stabbed the visitors ahead in the 10th minute before Lee made his second penalty save, blocking Paul Wotton's powerful effort after Adrian Mariappa fouled Ryan Smith.
Eustace doubled the Hornets' advantage in the 30th minute, heading into the net from close range before Priskin drilled home from six-yards in the 41st minute to move Watford up to 15th in the table while the Saints lie two places above the Championship drop-zone.
