Brian Laws delighted by turnaround in fortunes

Jay Rodriguez was shunted over by Martin Taylor as he controlled a pass from substitute Ross Wallace – who, moments earlier, had scored the equaliser.

Graham Alexander converted from the spot, and while Watford’s players and boss Malky Mackay were livid, Laws felt it was clear cut. He said: “Rodriguez chested the ball down and got barged in the back.

“You can’t do that.

“But we’ve had some horrendous decisions against us, and this was justified.

“I think it was the right decision, and Grezza stood tall and smashed it in.”

Burnley had taken the lead through Chris Iwelumo’s ninth goal of the season, only for the Clarets to gift Don Cowie an equaliser.

Taylor headed the Hornets in front, before Laws’ substitutions and change of system to 4-4-2 heralded a recovery.

And he felt his side were worthy winners: “We deserved the win for our mentality, because it was a real test for us, our character and mental strength.

“Our performances of late have been fantastic, but the results haven’t been great.

“We had a little bit of a role reversal here, we didn’t play as well, but I thought we dug deep.

“We scored the first goal, but the equaliser was very poor from our point of view, and it rocked us a little bit.

“We weren’t at the races from that period.

“I said at half-time we needed to do better with the ball, get down the sides of them better, and sometimes managers make changes and it doesn’t work, but it worked.

“Credit to the substitutes coming on, they changed the game and won it for us.

“We made positive changes, we went to a flat four in midfield, a 4-4-2, and it worked.

“The system has been fantastic for us this season, and we’ve played some great football, but it was too scrappy, and the substitutions won us the game.”

Wallace has waited patiently for a chance to impress, and Laws was delighted with his efforts. He said: “You couldn’t ask for a better impact, Ross has been eagerly waiting for his opportunity, but the team have been doing well, so he’s had to bide his time.

“It’s hard to go on when the game isn’t flowing well, the ball was hardly on the floor – it wasn’t that the teams wanted to do that, it jut happened that way.

“There was a lot of heading in the game, it was like head tennis at times, but once we got the ball down and got it out wide, we were causing them all sorts of problems.

“Our combination work was great, and, eventually, getting balls in the box was going to be a problem for them.

“Ross kept the shape and width better for us.

“Both he and Chris Eagles were dangerous, but I don’t think Ross could have expected a better performance coming off the bench, because it’s so hard to get into the game and make and impact.”