Tom Cleverley hails four-goal Vakoun Bayo after Watford sink Sheffield Wednesday

Head coach Tom Cleverley lauded four-goal Vakoun Bayo after Watford climbed into the top six of the Championship with a stunning 6-2 victory over Sheffield Wednesday at Hillsborough.

Michael Smith quickly cancelled out Ryan Porteous’ opener before penalties from Tom Ince and Bayo put Watford in the driving seat.

Bayo bagged his second and claimed the match ball either side of Pol Valentin’s reply for the Owls and then claimed his fourth in the closing stages.

Cleverley said: “Bayo fully deserved his four goals. I couldn’t be more pleased for an individual; his unselfish play doesn’t generate the most praise but we really appreciate it.

“We want to create a mentality where we’re confident we can deal with big expectations and compete at the right end of the table.

“It’s not been as shocking as it may look on paper with our away form this year. We’ve just had three really poor performances in a tough run of games.

“The fans have travelled in their numbers again and they really deserve it. We’ve had some bad away results and hopefully after today we can move on from those.

“We’ll recover from today and get back to work. We’re pleased with the win but now we’ve got to go to Swansea on Tuesday and back it up.”

Cleverley added: “If there is a negative I’d say we didn’t play our best football in the first half and we need to address that. We conceded from two crosses and we have to work on defending our box.

“I think we rode a few storms and Wednesday had the better of the game in the first half. I could easily be sat here having a more negative interview.

“We generally improved our play in the second half. I thought we took control of the ball and showed our class as individuals and as a team.

“We were organised and showed good structure. In possession we were fantastic. We looked confident and connected on the ball whilst showing real quality in the final third.”

Wednesday boss Danny Rohl was left stunned by his side’s second-half collapse.

Rohl said: “The players and I have a mixed feeling of shock and disappointment because we’ve improved so much in our last few games.

“In the first half we were in a good way, we moved the ball well and created lots of chances.

“I think if you asked the crowd at half-time they would have said they were happy with the performance. I was convinced we could go on and win.

“There were just six minutes between the two penalties which really knocked us back. We tried to get men forward but we lost our structure when we tried to come back into the game.

“We have never had 45 minutes of football like we had today. Watford had seven shots on target and scored six goals which for me is very hard to take.

“We allowed them to show their individual talent in the second half and we allowed so many easy situations against us which I find really disappointing.

“We are struggling to get results at home whether we perform well or not and of course we will work our hardest to change this.

“It’s difficult but we can’t get stuck on today. We will recover in the next days and then we have another tough game against Norwich on Tuesday.”