A wet night in Cardiff meant a slippy fast pitch and at times both teams zipped the ball around but far too often possession was lost.
It took a mistake for City to take the lead. Watford captain Neil Cox tried to pass back to his keeper but Earnie nipped and rounded the helpless Pidgeley to open the scoring.
Watford played a full part in the game but could not create anything in front of goal.
Cardiff far too often gave away possession but always looked dangerous when the excellent Robinson and Kavanagh were involved.
With 15 mins to go I was thinking about my ramblings and words like "tedious 1 - 0 victory" were crossing my mind but we were treated to a rousing finish with Tony Vidmar side footing home from 8 yards after a scramble in the box from a Kavanagh corner and then Kav scored the goal of the night when he rounded a defender to score off the post from the edge of the box with 2 mins to go.
City's last attack of the night saw a five man forward line on Robinson on the right, Barker on the left and a central three of Gray, Collins and Fleetwood all looking for a goal.
Gray looked good when he came on and I wonder if he'll replace the suspended Langley at Burnley on Saturday. Stuart Fleetwood made the bench ahead of Maxwell and Whalley. I assume Whalley was injured. Fleetwood saw action with a few mins at the end.
James Collins replaced Gavin Gordon. Gavin produced some great flicks and won important headers but he needs to impose himself more and go looking for the ball rather than waiting for it to come to him.
I thought Croft, Robinson and Kavanagh were the players to shine. Robinson never stops running. Kav's goal was a class finish from a class player.
Onto Burnley now. Then Stoke and Wimbledon. All winnable games. 7 points from those three matches will see us right in the mix in the top half of the table.