Watford 1-1 Brentford: Troy Deeney & Ivan Toney rating penalties in draw

The Championship’s top scorer Ivan Toney held his nerve to score from the spot and earn 10-man Brentford a draw at fellow promotion hopefuls Watford.

Vladimir Ivic’s hosts thought they had won it when sub Stipe Perica headed in a Sarr cross but it was disallowed for offside despite the Croatian striker appearing to be level with the last defender.

But defeat would have been harsh on Brentford, who were dominant before going down to 10 men and created several first-half chances.

Watford move up to third with the draw, three points behind the top two and two clear of the sixth-placed Bees, who are unbeaten in 12 league matches.

Toney headed wide unmarked from close range, spectacularly struck the post from 25 yards and prodded off-target, while Bryan Mbeumo fired over in a first 45 minutes during which Thomas Frank’s visitors controlled the midfield but could not find the finishing touch.

After Pinnock brought down Sarr referee James Linington mistakenly red-carded his team-mate Mads Bech Sorensen before eventually correcting his decision, and Hornets skipper Deeney went for power from the spot to score.

Toney stayed calm to do the same with his penalty and move onto 16 Championship goals for the season, though Watford are unbeaten in 17 matches against Brentford in all competitions, their longest unbeaten run against an opponent since joining the Football League in 1920.

Head coach Frank was booked as things got heated on the sidelines at times but his side ended up being rather fortunate to come away with something to show for their display.

Watford boss Vladimir Ivic told BBC Three Counties Radio:

“We played against a good team who play football, who came and created a lot of good situations in the first 45 minutes – they used the space, we couldn’t adapt and they had some good chances.

“For me it’s not normal that we concede a goal immediately after we score – with one player more, we need to find the reason this happened because it’s not the first time.

“The last 20-25 minutes we should’ve attacked more from wide because we had a lot of space, but we tried to play the long ball without reason.”