Watford beat Southampton 2-1 on the opening day of the Championship season, two first-half goals settling a match the visitors shaded after the interval. It was Southampton's first league fixture since the espionage affair that cost them their place in last season's play-offs, and the home crowd did not let them forget it.
Iker Bravo opened the scoring in the 11th minute, and did almost all of it himself. Watford's 21-year-old summer arrival from Udinese chased Jack Stephens' aimless kick some 40 yards out, won the first header, hooked the ball under control with an outstretched toe, then turned and drove into the box before getting away a low shot that Daniel Peretz got a hand to and could not keep out.
The second, on 28 minutes, belonged to the academy. Amin Nabizada, 19, seized a wayward Ryan Manning pass, carried the ball from his own half and finished precisely from a tight angle into the far corner. Five bookings had already gone into a feisty half, and the home supporters rose as one to applaud their new-look side off at the break.
Southampton were the better team after it. A long spell of possession ended with Cameron Bragg working the ball to Cyle Larin, who poked in from 10 yards on 55 minutes, and Larin might have levelled two minutes later had Federico Ravaglia not turned his shot round the post. Watford held on with 34% of the ball and 16 shots to Southampton's 17, and Taylor Harwood-Bellis, riled all afternoon by opponents and stands alike, scuffed the visitors' clearest late chance wide.