Mariappa’s calamitous own goal gifts Brighton draw with Watford | Football

A horrible own goal from Adrian Mariappa gifted Brighton a precious point in this relegation encounter and threatened the escape velocity bubbling under Nigel Pearson’s Watford.

His team have now dropped eight points from winning positions in their last three matches, with Pearson’s impressive job at Vicarage Road at risk of being undermined by their inability to see out games. Last week they threw away a two-goal lead in first-half injury-time before going down to a 3-2 defeat at home to Everton. This week it was a thunderous, and entirely needless, finish from Mariappa with 10 minutes to go that denied them all three points. With 12 games left to save themselves they remain in the bottom three, where they have been after every matchday but one this season.

For Brighton, who stay in 15th place, Mariappa’s moment of self-destruction is unlikely to distract from their own problems. The Seagulls struggled to break down compact opponents and looked vulnerable on the counter. The crowd at the Amex Stadium was ill at ease too, their uncertainty matching that of the players. There was not much in the way of flowing football from Graham Potter’s side, who have failed to register a league win since beating Bournemouth in December.

“I’m really proud of the players today because when you go behind at home it gets edgy, it gets nervous and that’s understandable,” Potter said. “There’s even more pressure on us to find a solution then but I thought we deserved the goal. There’s lots to be happy with.

“For the first 20 minutes we were doing OK, then they score. Everything changes then. We had to huff and puff at that point, show character, stay in the game. Then as the game goes on you’ve got to try and think about how you can affect it. We put a couple of strikers on, different players at number 10. We tried everything, so in the end it was nice to get something.”

Brighton indeed set off on the front foot, controlling play without threatening unduly, believing nothing much was being risked by doing so. Their confidence was misplaced. In the 19th minute, Brighton worked themselves out of trouble after a smart exchange of passes and gave Aaron Mooy the chance to break forward from midfield. The Australian held on to the ball for too long, however, and Étienne Capoue cut out his pass. The rebound fell to Abdoulaye Doucouré and the midfielder made Brighton pay the heaviest price.

Doucouré is the type of player who can sometimes make you wonder whether he actually has any weakness. He appeared unstoppable in this moment, bursting from the halfway line past Ezequiel Schelotto and bearing down on Shane Duffy, before cutting inside the Irishman and bending a clean strike across the goal and out of Mat Ryan’s reach. It looked easy, even though it most definitely wasn’t, and was a reminder of the ability that Watford have in their side, despite their parlous position.

As against Everton, Watford had cause to curse the way they conceded the equaliser. Potter’s various permutations had failed to ruffle the visitors noticeably but when Leandro Trossard found Alireza Jahanbakhsh on the right wing with 10 minutes remaining, the Iranian substitute earned his good fortune. There was a shortage of Brighton bodies in the box but his delivery was a wicked one and Mariappa could not resist intervening. With no one anywhere near him and nothing requiring him to take any action whatsoever, Mariappa slammed the ball past a startled Ben Foster and into the roof of his own net.

“It’s unfortunate”, said Pearson. “We’ve worked exceptionally hard today and goals like that are very difficult to deal with. But I try to stress the importance of not becoming overly positive when things are going well or too pessimistic if things go negatively. You have a better chance of surviving if you keep your nerve.”