No excuses from Boothroyd

Watford manager Adrian Boothroyd refused to use the absence of Ashley Young as an excuse for his team’s home defeat by Sheffield United.

Young, Watford’s most creative player, was missing with flu, and without him the Hornets lacked ideas and succumbed 1-0 thanks to an 87th-minute winner from substitute Danny Webber, who left Watford to move to Bramall Lane in March 2005.