Coventry City closed their Championship season with a 4-0 win over Watford at Vicarage Road, with Ellis Simms scoring a hat-trick and Vitor Torp adding a late fourth. The result extended Coventry's unbeaten run to eight games and left Watford to absorb a fifth successive defeat.
Frank Lampard changed his starting line-up for Coventry's final game of the season, keeping only Carl Rushworth, Matt Grimes, Josh Eccles and Brandon Thomas-Asante from the side that beat Wrexham 3-1 last weekend. The changes did not slow Coventry down. Simms punished Watford three times, and Lampard said after the game that the striker's all-round display, from hold-up play to running in behind and finishing, was a beautiful hat-trick.
Watford had moments that might have changed the tone. Nestory Irankunda hit the post, Egil Selvik denied Josh Eccles before the break and the hosts were also denied a penalty when Chakvetadze went down in the box and the referee waved play on. But the gap between the sides was clear by the final whistle, and Watford finished in 16th place in the Championship table.
The defeat came amid reports that Ed Still could be facing the exit door after only 15 matches in charge, a damaging backdrop to a run that has now gone badly wrong. Still said on Friday that he knows what needs to be done to enable Watford to be in Coventry's position next season, but Coventry's finish underlined how far ahead they were on the day and, by the end of the campaign, in the standings that mattered most.
