Well, that wasn’t part of the script.

The Hornets normally go on to close out a game or at least get a point when Troy Deeney scores a penalty, but QPR were having none of it, plundering two goals in the last 18 minutes to become only the second side to win here this season.

How the team really needed to keep a clean sheet following Deeney’s 52nd-minute penalty to keep pace with the top two and to mark the passing of Johnny Williams, the long-serving full-back who died last month. He helped keep 22 of them in the title-winning season of 1968/69 season and one here would not only have been timely but also a fitting way to top off the pre-match tributes to a player who definitely falls into the legend category, having racked up 419 games at an average of around 40 a season.

Here, another Watford legend tried to do his bit and add to the rich legacy he’ll one day leave behind. In an appearance that leaves him just four shy of Williams, who is placed ninth in the pantheon, Deeney slammed in his 140th goal for the club. It again came from the penalty spot, but so did most of Keith Eddy’s goals for the club in the late 60s and early 70s and yet he gained cult status for his proficiency from 12 yards, so much so he assumed duties from the great Pelé at New York Cosmos.

Deeney now has 37 penalties to his name, missing only six. It is a record not to be sniffed at. He is closing in on Matt Le Tissier’s fine haul of 47 for Southampton. The captain was nerveless once more, again calling the bluff of the keeper and sticking to the down-the-middle technique that is serving him so well. He shifted the one at Stoke just left of centre and is so skilled he hammered this one on 52 minutes just right of centre.

It was a shame Deeney’s goal was not the decisive moment in this Monday night fixture as it looked odds on it was going to be, but Charlie Austin, the other warhorse striker on the field, had other ideas and planted in a diving header with 18 minutes left. It was the first goal the Golden Boys had shipped at home in 370 minutes. Not done there, QPR then got a second right at the death through Albert Adomah.

It was an extremely disappointing blow in the push for a top two spot but not a fatal one. There are plenty of twists and turns to come. What is clear is that this is a very different promotion challenge to the freewheeling one mounted in 2014/15. There is more than one other way to skin a cat and the Hornets still have more points now than they did at this stage in that heady season.

It was a slow burner of a first half with no hint of the late drama to come. QPR certainly started the brighter of the two sides. In fact, they continued where they left off when the two sides met at Loftus Road. They popped the ball about nicely, really taking a liking to the award-winning Vicarage Road pitch. Todd Kane in particular enjoyed himself down the right and most of what QPR did well in the opening half of the first half went through him. For all their neat interplay and pretty midfield patterns, there was only really a speculative shot from Austin and a pair of well-directed crosses that required clearance headers from William Troost-Ekong and Deeney.

It would be fair to say the home side took a while to warm to their task, but they did eventually get a foothold in the game, particularly with crosses into the box. From one, Francisco Sierralta, the Sportsbet.io Player of the Month for January, headed toweringly against the crossbar via a finger-tip from Seny Dieng.

The Swiss goalkeeper made the first stop of the second half, saving fairly comfortably at the near post from Ismaïla Sarr. Undeterred, Sarr was making further inroads just minutes later, his quick feet inducing a foul from Geoff Cameron. The captain did the rest from the spot.

It lifted the team big time and they charged around trying to preserve the advantage. Will Hughes crashed into a big tackle in front of the dugout, Nathaniel Chalobah took the lot in a meaty header in the middle of the park and then Tom Cleverley hurt himself sliding in bravely to stop a cross from the left.

You expected the team with the best home record in the country to manage the game thereafter against a side who hadn’t recorded a win against a team in the top six this season. But ex-Watford Academy Manager Mark Warburton and his assistant, Hornets cult hero John Eustace, used his bench well and orchestrated a stunning comeback by the R’s. You could tell how much a win here meant to them at the final whistle. The Golden Boys need to forget about this one pretty quickly and get ready for Saturday’s lunchtime date with Coventry. They need to get some momentum back.