A STRANGER to Second Division football, visiting Turf Moor on Saturday, would have had no hesitation when asked to identify the strugglers and the runaway leaders.

His only doubt would have been as to the sanity of the person who told him he was wrong.

We have had to accept that Watford's results have often been far more compelling and entertaining than their performances over the last couple of months but, on Saturday, their performance was so woeful, that it was hard to leave Burnley entertaining the possibility that the Hornets could go another 13 games without defeat, replicating their reaction to the setback suffered at the hands of Millwall in October.

There was nothing remotely encouraging or reassuring about this Watford display for Burnley did to them that which the Hornets have all too rarely achieved this season: they out-thought their opponents, out-fought them, out-scored and out-played them.

The final result was flattering, for Watford. This had all the ingredients of a rout.

Graham Taylor was later to concede that five or six players were well below form but that seemed a conservative estimate.

Certainly some performed as if they had never seen a ball before.

This was not just a case of one team catching by surprise, with their commitment and resourcefulness, opponents who then found it hard to break back from a two-goal deficit. There was never any semblance of a championship or promotion-chasing team.

The Hornets were ruptured from the outset, well-beaten by the interval and grateful not to fall further behind before the end.

They staged a little rally in the final 20 minutes, exercised some pressure, but they just seemed to be going through the motions: there was no belief, no sign of a determination to make things happen or the preparedness to take on the responsibility for trying to turn the tide.

Andy Cooke, who scored a hat-trick against the Hornets last May, could have repeated the feat on Saturday. Instead he took his tally against Watford to five, having scored just three others in 18 League games this season.

The 23-year-old gave Millen the novel experience of the run-around, but this defeat was not down to the outcome of one personal battle but a host of them.

The defence was always stretched, the midfield over-run and, apart from a few efforts by the plucky Lowndes, the attack was anonymous.

The lack of goals from the strikers, who are currently each averaging a goal every five to six games, may be the reason why Watford opted to continue with Easton augmenting the midfield, but there was no additional impetus from this zone and it was not until Watford pushed forward later on, that they began to gain some attacking momentum.

Watford have been fortunate if resilient on some of their travels, notably at Grimsby and Gillingham, but not even the most rabidly biased Hornets' follower could reason that the visitors deserved anything more than this defeat even if they might be reluctant to admit it could have been heavier.

The Hornets' display was so uncharacteristically bad in the first half-hour, that I found myself looking at the corner flags to try and determine if the wind was rendering it impossible for the team facing the elements to control or play the ball.

Lee, in particular, had a most unhappy relationship with the ball all afternoon.

The only consolation was that Watford surely cannot play so ineptly again.

The import of things to come, came within seconds of the kick off: Millen having to make a fine tackle to dispossess Cooke as he seemed poised to enjoy a one-on-one with Chamberlain. Burnley fans screamed for a penalty, but that was without justification.

Waddle then set up Cooke for a clear chance, but the striker fired over the bar.

Chamberlain next tipped over from Matthew before the defence was opened up again and Burnley took the lead.

It was 20 minutes before Watford conjured a weak shot, and when Burnley doubled their lead, it was plain it would take an amazing transformation for the Hornets to pull this particular fat from the fire.

Lowndes had a shot turned round the post just before the break, during which Taylor opted for a more attacking line-up.

Yet early in the second half Watford, somewhat fortuitously, survived a scramble in front of their goalmouth; then Little cleared the target from a good position and Ford chipped an angled chance straight at the keeper.

The degree of panic that Watford evinced was typified when Millen, knocking the ball into Chamberlain's path, saw the keeper drop on it and concede a free kick in the penalty area, when a boot upfield was the easy option.

Fortunately, Burnley squandered the chance but there was to be no overall reprieve.

Watford threatened on occasions but Lee, ignoring the better-placed Hyde who had run into space, opted for a shot, which the keeper parried. Millen headed wide from a corner and Mooney clipped the ball off target from a Hyde pass.

In the end, we were left to ponder why Watford, who have not been as convincingly dominant as the League table suggests, lurched from the effective to the all but bereft.

However, it was nothing as simple as the reshuffled defence to accommodate the absence of the suspended Page, or the initially augmented midfield.

To dwell on this display would be too unnerving and depressing. Better to dismiss it as a one-off: to contemplate anything else would be an over-reaction.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.