BOTH SETS of fans sang “You’re getting sacked in the morning” to Alan Pardew as West Brom slumped to a sixth defeat in a row.
Troy Deeney ran on to a through ball by substitute Will Hughes with 13 minutes left to punish the Baggies for failing to convert their own chances.
The Watford fans started the chant but the travelling supporters joined in to leave the West Brom owners with another decision to make in a desperate season.
Defeat was hard on the Baggies, who had been the better side in a poor game and had seen Salomon Rondon waste a golden opportunity to put them ahead.
But Deeney, who was linked with a move to The Hawthorns in the transfer window, rubbed their noses in it with the winner.
An advertising hoarding was giving off smoke in the first half, much to the delight of the travelling fans, but the match never caught fire.
The first half lived up to expectations, but only after a good early chance for either side.
In the fourth minute, some good work by Jay Rodriguez led to the ball dropping to Grzegorz Krychowiak and his goal-bound effort was superbly blocked by Adrian Mariappa, who was making his 250th start for the Hornets.
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A few minutes later, Roberto Pereyra found space in the West Brom box but Kieran Gibbs got his head in the way of the Watford playmaker’s shot.
After a long period of scrappy play, Pereyra broke in the 38th minute and fed Daryl Janmaat, whose low effort was kept out by Ben Foster’s right leg. Sebastian Prodl headed the resulting corner just over the bar.
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Chris Brunt swung a West Brom free kick on the roof of the Watford net and that was it for first-half action.
The second period started encouragingly, with the Baggies’ Rondon running clear to force a decent save out of Orestis Karnezis and Richarlison going close with an overhead kick at the other end.
Rondon should have broken the deadlock moments later but sent a free header from eight yards out horribly wide after a perfect cross by Gibbs.
Andre Carrillo shot just over the bar but the home team were struggling to find a final pass to create a clear-cut chance.
It took some excellent defending by Janmaat to stop Jay Rodriguez converting Matty Phillips’ cross with 20 minutes left.
And Gibbs made his second crucial intervention to clear Watord substitute Stefano Okaka’s shot off the line.
But when Hughes robbed Krychowiak and broke the offside trap, Deeney ran through and fired past Foster from the edge of the box to deepen the Baggies’ misery still further and leave Pardew clinging on to his job by his fingernails.
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