Wolves punish woeful Watford with early flurry of goals

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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.

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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.

"We didn't defend the first one well enough, the next two it is pretty obvious. All the goals are mistakes, some are clearer mistakes than others," Watford manager Roy Hodgson told reporters.

"It was disappointing in every respect. We have a very sad dressing room. It gets hard when your players don't care enough, but we are not in that position yet.

"We have to hold our hands up that we are not good enough at times, but not that they don't care. These players need to feel anxiety because we are running out of time."

Watford 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.

"He [Foster] would be the first to put his hand up. He has been vitally important in every respect, with his performances and the way he is," Hodgson said.

"As a keeper, you are a hero or a zero. He has been a hero a number of times, this was the other side of the coin. If you want to be anonymous, get yourself in midfield."