Boothroyd leads Watford into promised land

WATFORD completed their fairytale turnaround in Cardiff yesterday as goals from Jay DeMerit, a Neil Sullivan own goal and Darius Henderson defeated Leeds United in the Championship play-off final and landed the Vicarage Road club an estimated £40 million jackpot.

The Hornets were installed as third favourites for relegation at the start of the season and the appointment of former Hearts midfielder Adrian Boothroyd as manager in March 2005 did little to appease frustrated fans.

But 14 months on the Bradford-born 35-year-old has worked a minor miracle, lifting the club from the depths of the Championship and into the Barclays Premiership in his first full season as a manager.

This match is annually billed as the most lucrative in football given the TV riches that await teams in the Premiership. Thanks to Boothroyd, Watford will now be able to tap into that money. Even if they survive just one season in the Premiership, the Hornets stand to make more money than they have ever done in their history.

The figure is calculated on Watford earning a minimum of £18 million from a single season in the top flight. Even if they finish bottom they will pull in this sum from Sky TV income and league 'prize money'. In the event of relegation after one Premiership season they would be due 'parachute payments' of £9 million per season for the next two seasons under the terms of the Premier League's recent £1.7 billion TV deal with Sky and Setanta which comes into effect from 2007. The rest of the cash will come in the form of increased gate receipts guaranteed from a season mixing with the likes of Chelsea, Manchester United, Liverpool and Arsenal.

Leeds, by comparison, are left with small beer. Relegated from the Premieship two seasons ago and reportedly one week from bankruptcy with debts of £24 million, victory yesterday would have represented a remarkable turnaround for the fallen giants.

Instead they must console themselves with a paltry £1.3 million which comes from the gate receipts from yesterday's game. Such were the riches on offer to the winners that the finalists agreed beforehand that the losers should keep all the cash from yesterday's match at the Millennium Stadium.

Leeds were favourites but they never got going in Cardiff. American defender DeMerit's far-post header gave Watford a 25th-minute lead. Chambers enjoyed a lucky deflection off Eddie Lewis before the ball hit the post and went in off former Scotland goalkeeper Sullivan to make it 2-0 in the 55th minute. Then Henderson rounded off his side's stunning season with an 83rd-minute penalty.

Watford may not be everyone's cup of tea in the Premiership next season, but Boothroyd's boys were more than a match for his former manager Kevin Blackwell's Leeds.

Slick and well-drilled, each of Boothroyd's players looked well versed in their own roles, while in contrast Leeds at times looked lost.

Both sides struggled to come to terms with the Millennium Stadium's poor playing surface early on, with rugby union's Heineken Cup final on Saturday doing nothing to help ease the players' nerves. Leeds clearly held the advantage in terms of their support, but the noise made by both sets of fans when the players emerged was almost enough to raise the Millennium's closed roof.

Paul Butler deflected Henderson's header from Ashley Young's second-minute corner over the crossbar, while Shaun Derry's left-foot shot from just inside the Watford penalty area hit Lloyd Doyley's outstretched leg.

Rob Hulse flashed a volley from the edge of the penalty area wide when a pass to the overlapping Frazer Richardson would have been the better option for the Leeds player.

Watford then forced two quick corners and made the second one count to take the lead in the 25th minute when centre-half DeMerit barged his way past Hulse onto the end of Young's left-wing corner to head beyond Sullivan.

Sean Gregan was booked soon after for appearing to flick an arm into Henderson's face, although the Watford striker, sent off at Elland Road in February, made the most of it.

Watford midfielder Matthew Spring, discarded by Blackwell last summer, was next into referee Mike Dean's notebook for clipping Jonathan Douglas' legs as the Leeds man burst clear on the outside and then former Celtic midfielder Liam Miller was booked for a trip on Young.

Leeds were dealt a cruel blow in the 55th minute when Chambers' tame shot in the penalty area following Mahon's long throw took a wicked deflection off Lewis' boot and spun over Sullivan before hitting the post and ricocheting off the prone Leeds goalkeeper's shoulder and trickling over the goalline.

David Healy immediately replaced Miller and the Northern Ireland international soon tested Foster, racing onto Blake's clever dummy and forcing the Watford goalkeeper to save low down to his left. Gregan failed to keep his header down from Lewis' free-kick and Derry's header was cleared off the line by Chambers as Leeds at last gathered some momentum.

But it wasn't to last and Leeds shoulders dropped in the 83rd minute when Henderson stepped up to side-foot home from the spot after Derry clipped King's foot in the area.

Leeds' fans responded admirably, but they knew they had been well beaten on the day. Eirik Bakke replaced Gregan in the closing stages, but made little impact as Watford prepared to celebrate their biggest day since former England manager Graham Taylor steered them through the play-offs in 1999.

Taken from the Scotsman