SC Villa Overview

Southampton’s return to the Sky Bet Championship turned into a hostile affair as they were relentlessy taunted over the ‘Spygate’ scandal during a 2-1 defeat at Watford. Tonda Eckert’s side struggled to handle the atmosphere at Vicarage Road in their first league outing since the espionage controversy that derailed their previous campaign.

Former Watford midfielder Pierre Dwomoh has been hit with an 11-match suspension by the Football Association following a series of racist incidents involving an Under-21 team-mate. The governing body described the player’s actions as "completely unacceptable" after he targeted a fellow professional with heritage-based slurs during training ground warm-ups.