Source: Team_Talk
Mackay delighted by Graham goal
The former Carlisle frontman was left with the simplest of finishes after the visiting defence went to sleep in the 54th minute, leaving John Eustace unmarked to head Don Cowie's free-kick back across the six-yard box.
Mackay said: "I am pleased with him [Graham]. You often wonder if they can step up [from lower leagues] and so far he has looked an absolute handful in every game he has played.
"The fact he is scoring goals shows he has made the step up effortlessly but it has not been effortlessly because I have seen the work he has been doing in training."
After two home draws, this was the Hornets' first league success at Vicarage Road.
Mackay added: "It is great to get a win at home in front of our fans, but to have the back five come through our academy and play Championship football against the likes of Andy Gray and Iain Hume and not look out of place speaks volumes for the players and the character they showed."
An injury to captain Jay DeMerit forced Mackay to give a first senior start to Dale Bennett, but the 19-year-old acquitted himself admirably in helping the home side also pick up a first league clean sheet of the campaign.
In truth though, the Hornets had a quiet day at the back, until Barnsley tried to mount a late siege - leaving Robins in no doubt about the size of the task he faces at Oakwell.
Describing his first game at the helm as "not brilliant", the new Barnsley boss said: "I can certainly understand why I was given the job a lot clearer now and things need to be sorted quickly.
"It's been difficult. I came in on Wednesday afternoon but to try to get as much into the players as I possibly could over that period of time has proved fairly difficult."
Robins explained that "performances in training have been a million times better than on the pitch today", and added: "There is a crisis in confidence and that needs to change quickly."
Watford dominated the first half, but the only time goalkeeper David Preece was tested was early on when he saved Graham's snap-shot following a quickly taken Cowie free-kick.
Having made the breakthrough though, Graham should have made it 2-0 two minutes after scoring when he was released in the area and tried to place the ball wide of Preece, but the goalkeeper did well to narrow the angle.
The only criticism that could be levelled at the home side was that their failure to score a second made the closing stages unnecessarily nervous - and it took a superb tackle from Lloyd Doyley to prevent Gray from getting on the end of a cross-shot and having a clear chance to snatch an undeserved equaliser.
But Watford twice nearly scored again in the closing stages - Tom Cleverley curling a 25-yard effort narrowly wide of the far post before substitute Nathan Ellington saw a rising effort clear Preece, but rebound off the face of his crossbar.
