WATFORD, ENGLAND - Watford's bleak midwinter continued after they crashed 4-2 at home to Queens Park Rangers at Vicarage Road.

Despite bossing the first 45 minutes, Jay DeMerit's team entered the dressing rooms a calamitous 3-0 down to the struggling West Londoners, who had begun the game second to bottom of the Championship.

Watford's American skipper went the 90, but was aghast as Martin Rowlands gave the visitors the lead with a penalty in the 13th minute, then added a goal from open play five minutes before the break to sandwich Damion Stewart's 29th minute header.

The Hornets replied soon after halftime through Damien Francis to make it 3-1, but QPR regained their three-goal advantage 10 minutes from the end when Akos Buszaky finished off a counterattack. Danny Shittu netted a Hornets consolation in the 84th.

While Watford will enter 2008 still in an automatic promotion slot, if they prolong a home run that has yielded only two points from their last seven attempts, the Premier League will surely disappear from their sights before long.

"It was a game we dominated," DeMerit told American Soccer Daily. "And though we had the ball in their half for what seemed like the whole game, we didn't do our jobs for some split seconds. Every chance they had, they scored from. That doesn't happen every day, but unfortunately today, it did to us."

Anyone seeing the halftime score would have thought QPR had been in charge of the first half, yet the truth was anything but that.

Luigi De Canio's team deferred to their hosts from the outset, camping in their own half and offering nothing in attack, apparently looking for only a point.

The Hornets' Nathan Ellington guided a header wide of the far post in the fourth minute as his team enjoyed the lion's share of the ball and overwhelming territorial superiority in the opening stanza.

By the 12th minute, it was all Watford and a score seemed likely. Lee Williamson expertly pierced the massed ranks of QPR defenders to pick out Damien Francis, but the big midfielder's snap shot was caught by a quick-thinking Lee Camp in the Rangers goal.

Seconds later, the under siege visitors were in a shock lead after Jordan Stewart was somewhat harshly adjudged to have pushed over Dexter Blackstock as the pair chased a long punt into the area from Angelo Balanta.

Rowlands sent Richard Lee the wrong way with a powerful spot kick to give the R's an undeserved lead after what had been their first attack of the game.

Watford resumed their pressure at the other end and Ellington missed a good chance to level in the 18th when he received Williamson's deft pass, but leant back and blazed over the crossbar.

Three minutes later, it was pinball in the QPR box as Francis, Darius Henderson and Tommy Smith all had on-target shots smothered by the sea of red and black jerseys ahead of them.

Just short of the half hour, the R's at last broke out of their half and forced a corner kick when Lee tipped Blackstock's effort over. From the resulting Rowlands corner, defender Damion Stewart ghosted in to power his header past Lee and double the visitors' lead.

Watford dominated the rest of the half like they had the opening half hour, but the well-organized and determined 10 men QPR had placed behind the ball kept the home side frustrated.

To rub salt in the wound, Rangers scored from their third raid in the 40th minute. Watford could have little complaints about this one, a well-executed counterattack which saw Balanta and Adam Boulder combine to set up Rowlands for a smart left-footed volley past Lee into the far corner.

To remind the crowd who had governed the opening spell, Williamson was inches from converting at the other end two minutes from the break, but saw his 20-yard effort tipped onto the post by a relieved Camp.

Seven minutes after the interval, Watford found a lifeline with a scrappy goal from a corner kick as Zesh Rehman's missed clearance of Francis' header deflected off his goalkeeper and over the line.

The Hornets' style now became more physical and less technical, and as they pushed for another goal, their passes became more hurried and less accurate, turning the game into a very scrappy affair.

Stewart fired over at the one end and Camp earned his pay at the other, catching Henderson's chested effort and parrying Jobi McAnuff's shot as the Hornets kept pressing, aided by the introduction of their heavy cavalry in the form of Danny Shittu and Marlon King.

Coach Aidy Boothroyd made his last switch with 10 minutes to go, replacing Lloyd Doyley with John-Joe O'Toole, but two minutes later it was all over.

Hungarian midfielder Akos Buzsaky scampered after a through ball and rounded the advancing Lee. From an acute angle, he had four defenders still to beat, but his stinging shot deflected off DeMerit and into the net to restore the three-goal advantage.

Shittu thumped the ball into the net six minutes from time to make it 4-2, but while O'Toole spurned a good opportunity by shooting too high in the dying seconds, the game had already been lost.

"I think we had the best stats of the season as far as our crosses and shots on goal go," said DeMerit, "But sometimes it does not fall your way. We just have to take the positives out of it and not dwell on the result."

Having seen a nine-point lead in October become a three-point deficit, the US international confirmed the pressure is now on the Hornets to perform again.

"You lose 4-2, but you know sometimes these things happen," sighed DeMerit. "We will look to bounce back on New Year's Day at Southampton, so we can get back to where we want to be - at the top of the Championship. Over Christmas, if you have bad results, within a few days you can change it."

Watford remain second on goal difference, three points behind leaders West Brom.

ASD's Three Stars
#1 Martin Rowlands
#2 Lee Camp
#3 Lee Williamson

Scoring
QPR - Martin Rowlands 3 (PK) 13'
QPR - Damion Stewart 4 (Martin Rowlands) 29'
QPR -  Martin Rowlands 4 (Angelo Balanta) 40'
WAT - Own Goal (Lee Camp) 52'
QPR - Own Goal (Jay DeMerit) 80'
WAT - Danny Shittu 5 84'

Line-ups
WAT - Richard Lee; Lloyd Doyley (John-Joe O'Toole 80'), Matt Jackson (Danny Shittu 46'), Jay DeMerit, Jordan Stewart, Damien Francis, Lee Williamson, Jobi McAnuff, Tommy Smith, Darius Henderson, Nathan Ellington (Marlon King 69')

QPR - Lee Camp; Chris Barker, Damion Stewart, Adam Bolder, Dexter Blackstock, Gareth Ainsworth (Rowan Vine 63'), Martin Rowlands, Robert Malcolm, Zesh Rehman, Marc Nygaard (Simon Walton 90'), Angelo Balanta (Akos Buzsaky 74')