Watford boss Paulo Pezzolano hails impact of matchwinner Luca Kjerrumgaard

Watford boss Paulo Pezzolano paid tribute to Danish striker Luca Kjerrumgaard after he scored twice on his home league debut as the Hornets notched their first win of the season by beating QPR 2-1.

Kjerrumgaard struck twice in four first-half minutes to put Watford in control, but QPR set up a nervy second half when Kieran Morgan scored seconds before the break.

The Dane opened the scoring after 19 minutes when he slotted home Nestory Irankunda’s cross from the left and the on-loan Udinese forward then nodded home Imran Louza’s cross in the 23rd minute.

Morgan drilled home from outside the box in first-half stoppage time to keep the pressure on the Hornets but they held on although the win was marred when Louza, on his 100th appearance for Watford, was given a straight red card three minutes into added time for a high tackle on Rangers sub Jonathan Varane.

Pezzloano said through an interpreter after his first win in charge: “I’m very happy for Luca. We know that he is going to be a top striker – a very good player.

“He is young, and we will take care of his development.

“But it’s good for the team to know that there is a guy up front who can seize chances.”

Pezzalano did not rule out an appeal to Louza’s red card after taking time to review the incident and added: “The incident was on the far side of the match, so I can’t comment. We may appeal once people at the club have looked again.”

QPR boss Julien Stephan, still looking for his first win in English football after three attempts, was not happy with the way his side performed in the first half, although was much happier with the display after the interval.

He said: “We played two completely different halves. The first half was poor tactically, technically and in terms of intensity with and without the ball.

“The second half was vey good when we created danger.

“I was very disappointed at half-time because this was not the way I want us to play. We need to improve to be better for the next games as we need to be better.

“I hope we will be quickly able to play more than 45 minutes, especially away from home.

“It’s probably my fault because I didn’t prepare the players properly for the way Watford played in the first half.

“We need to read situations more quickly, and we needed to play better in the second half for our fans.

“That’s football – we can lose matches but we must with character and intensity, not like we played in the first half.”