Match abandoned at Vicarage Road

12 April 2012

Watford and Wigan will have to replay this match after they were forced off 11 minutes into the second half with the score 1-1 because heavy rain made the pitch impossible to play on.

With players unable to keep their balance or judge their passes, referee Steve Tanner sent them to the dressing rooms in the 56th minute and the match was officially abandoned at 4:32pm.

During the play that was possible Emile Heskey had given Wigan the lead in the 23rd minute, with Tamas Priskin heading the equaliser - his first goal for the Hornets - a minute before half-time.

But those statistics are almost certain to be erased as the clubs seek a new date for the fixture in 2007.

Watford believe luck has deserted them this season and fortune worked against them once more in the 10th minute when Ashley Young's curling effort bounced back off the left post.

As has happened so often this term, Watford were punished for failing to take their chances.

In the 23rd minute Kevin Kilbane crossed from the left and Heskey held off Dan Shittu too easily before turning and firing low into the bottom right corner from 12 yards.

Wigan thought they had doubled their lead in the 40th minute when Denny Landzaat steered Svetoslav Todorov's cross past Ben Foster from six yards, but the Dutchman was offside.

Against the run of play Watford conjured an equaliser in the 44th minute, Priskin's header from Gavin Mahon's cross just beating Chris Kirkland's dive.

The rain, which had persisted throughout the first half, began to fall considerably harder at the start of the second half. In the 56th minute Tanner decided enough was enough and sent the players to the dressing rooms for an initial 10 minutes, with the match eventually called off shortly afterwards.

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