Tom Cleverley's reaction said it all. He's seen it all pretty much in his decorated career at the top level of the English game and with England. Who he has played with reads like a who's who of the European game. And yet two moments of brilliance from Ismaïla Sarr, a player surely destined for the very top of the game, had him doing all sorts in the stands.

When Sarr curled in the first with his apparently weaker left foot, Cleverley was out of his seat in the Sir Elton John Stand with a double fist pump that was not too dissimilar to that one his mate, Adrian Mariappa, pulled out of the bag at the end of the semi-final win over Wolverhampton Wanderers.

Cleverley had barely sat down in his seat next to Troy Deeney (two metres apart, of course) and he was up again, this time running along the row of seats in a similar manner to the way José Mourinho did at Old Trafford that night after Sarr somehow managed to top his first with a firecracker of a second. Cleverley has more than 200 Premier League appearances, a winner's medal and 13 England caps and yet Sarr is did two scarcely-believable things in quick succession that Cleverley completely lost it. It also says plenty about just how invested in his team, this club and the pursuit of Premier League football the midfielder is.

Sarr is the club's trump card, the ace in the pack, whatever card analogy you want to use. He almost kept the team up last season and this season he's hellbent on getting them back there at the first attempt. You wonder how things might have panned out differently had he not missed games against Aston Villa, Everton and Brighton through injury, but that's in the past now. The Senegalese flier is motoring the team towards promotion as quickly as he motors past a full-back. When he plays like this, with such direction, such pace, such power and with the bit between his teeth, there are few in the land who can stop him. Just ask Andy Robertson, Virgil Van Dijk and Dejan Lovren. Like that heady night against Liverpool, Sarr's best moments seem to come in pairs.

His twin strikes here in the space of 107 seconds killed the game, knocked the stuffing out of Reading and got rid of any nerves around this awkward fixture. It worked out perfectly: get in front, coast to victory thereafter, ring the changes and exert some more scoreboard pressure on the rivals playing tomorrow. The Hornets are now 12 points clear of the chasing pack with five games of their own to play.

You got the feeling Sarr was going to be in the mood after just four minutes when, from a rare direct attack, he collected an early drop kick from Daniel Bachmann, fed João Pedro with a lovely pass and saw his teammate flash one past the far post. Sarr took matters into his own hands from the same side ten minutes later. He collected yet another pass from Kiko Femenía, this time a short one, shifted the ball onto his left foot and arced one past Rafael Cabral who could only watch it drop into the far corner. Less than two minutes later, and to much disbelief, he managed to top it with one he struck like a sledgehammer with his right foot across a stunned Cabral and into the far corner. It was just a crying shame there were no fans here to witness it, but then at least fans got the small comfort of the benefit of replays from various angles at home.

Sarr's goals, his 11th and 12th of the season, were in contrast to a rather patchy team performance. Reading should have had at least one goal at half-time and possibly another. George Puscas, who got the winner in the fixture earlier in the season, hit the post and Michael Olise caused plenty of problems. You could see why the Royals have been up there for most of the season.

They continued to have the better of the game in the second period, enjoying more possession, more shots on goal and making more passes, but this is where the Hornets are able to rely on their rock-solid defence and win games while not being fluent. The back four and the screening players in front meant Bachmann only had to make one save in securing a 20th clean sheet of the season. The team have now matched the number of shut outs achieved in 1949/50 and 94/95, while they are just two short of the 22 managed in 96/97. Five more are required to equal the club record set in 1968/69. Ken Furphy's team won the league that season. The title looks out of reach this time, but the runners-up spot is firmly in their grasp.