Tom Cleverley told “role model” Vakoun Bayo to enjoy his rich vein of goalscoring form after firing Watford to a 1-0 home win over Oxford.
Striker Bayo, scorer of four second-half goals in last weekend’s 6-2 win at Sheffield Wednesday, struck on the rebound in the 54th minute.
That secured a sixth win in seven Championship home games for the Hornets, who moved from seventh place to fourth in the Champonshop, leap-frogging Burnley, West Brom and Millwall.
Bayo had scored just once this season before his four-goal burst at Hillsborough but was a constant menace to an Oxford side that remains without a second-tier away win since 1999.
And Watford manager Cleverley said of the 27-year-old Ivorian: “I’m really delighted for Bayo. He works hard every day, is a real role model and deserves his goals.
“A striker will always be judged on the goals he scores and rightly so but the reason he still played in the two months when he didn’t score is because of the job he does for the team.
“His out-of-possession responsibility, his hold-up play, how good he is back to goal and his great character is why he stays in the team even through dry period. He thoroughly deserves the five goals he scored this week.
“I want him to enjoy his goals. It had been a tough period because of the lack of them.”
Watford had to hang on at the end but had been the better side overall, particularly after the break.
Cleverley added: “I thought for 35 minutes of the second half we were outstanding – a performance that deserved a bigger lead.
“I felt we had chance after chance and our supporters dragged us through the difficult moments at the end.”
Oxford had chances to level, including one in stoppage time when substitute Mark Harris send an overhead-kick over the bar from two yards out after Watford had failed to deal with a free-kick.
Manager Des Buckingham said: “I’m not quite sure how he has done that – it looked harder to miss than score. At this level you have to take those or it costs you.”
Buckingham, who led his hometown club to promotion through the League One play-offs last season, had no complaints about his side’s overall performance however.
He said: “I’ve got two emotions. One, proud at how we applied ourselves against a good Watford team away from home but also frustrated that we haven’t capitalised and come away from here with something because we created enough opportunities to do that.
“We had some big chances and a penalty that wasn’t given that we might have had on an other day.
“We speak about being a together group, we did well, but Watford took their chance. (Goalkeeper) Jamie Cumming is getting better week by week and so is the team in front of him.
“Since I’ve come in, we’ve been in every game but we need to take our chances. If we keep playing that way, we’ll be fine.”
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