Odejayi banishes Wembley horror

Barnsley manager Simon Davey admitted it was ‘incredible’ for striker Kayode Odejayi to bounce back from his Wembley nightmare with a brace in the 3-0 Coca-Cola Championship win at Watford.

Odejayi missed a golden chance in the Tykes’ FA Cup semi-final defeat to Cardiff on Sunday and despite missing another great opportunity to open the scoring at Vicarage Road did grab a goal in each half to propel Davey’s side out of the drop zone.

The visitors had the better of a dire game and Davey insisted that nobody in the Barnsley camp had doubted the big forward’s ability.

He said: ‘We always believe in him and he has answered his critics.

‘He had the world on his shoulders over the weekend but he came in with a big smile on his face on Monday morning and got his rewards.

‘Centre-forwards live and die by their goal ratio which has not been good for Kay this year.

‘He knows that but he works very hard and he is a lovely lad.

‘To bounce back from Sunday like that is incredible.’

The result lifted the Tykes all the way up to 18th place in the table but Davey believes the fight will go to the wire.

Barnsley travel to in-form Preston on Saturday and Davey insists every point will count.

He said: ‘Nobody is too good to go down and we need more points.

‘That win was more important than the FA Cup semi-final. This is our bread and butter.’

Watford manager Adrian Boothroyd admitted that his side ‘didn’t deserve to win’ after an abject showing.

Boothroyd’s men had gone eight games without a win before Saturday’s 2-1 win over Coventry but due to the embarrassing lack of quality in the Championship kicked off knowing that a win would see them climb from fifth to top.

But that never looked likely from the minute Jordan Stewart screwed a header wide and Odejayi tapped in an unmissable chance to open the scoring.

Boothroyd said: ‘Barnsley had had a bad weekend and you think you can take advantage of things like that.

‘They changed their system and came for a point but we didn’t take our early chances and they got everything they deserved.

‘If you can’t score from three yards or defend set-pieces you don’t deserve to win.

‘I’m very, very disappointed and I would like a few answers tomorrow from my players.

‘We win together and we lose together. We are one of the favourites and we have a responsibility when teams come here to defend to break them down and we didn’t do that.’

The Hornets now must travel to face current leaders West Brom on Saturday and missing out on the psychological edge of leapfrogging Tony Mowbray’s side rankled Boothroyd.

He said: ‘There was a chance to go top with four games to go and we haven’t taken it which is very irritating.’Here