Watford 1-0 Sheffield Wednesday: Yaser Asprilla earns Hornets late win
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Yaser Asprilla's goal earned Watford only their third home win of the season
Watford substitute Yaser Asprilla snatched a late winner to deny Danny Rohl a point in his first game as Sheffield Wednesday boss.
The Colombian teenager had only been on the pitch for four minutes when he cut in from the right and rifled his finish across Cameron Dawson.
Dawson had barely been tested up to that point, with the visitors largely keeping Watford at bay and creating the better chances.
But Wednesday remain bottom of the Championship table and winless this season, while Watford's first victory in six games lifts them to 19th place.
Rohl rang the changes in his first game after succeeding Xisco Munoz, with only three players retained in the starting line-up from their 0-0 draw with Huddersfield a fortnight ago.
The revamped Owls side worked hard to frustrate Watford, although Jeremy Ngakia offered a threat on the right-hand side and supplied a cross to the far post that Imran Louza could only head wide.
But the visitors - who had found the net just once in their previous seven games - also went close when Josh Windass nodded Jeff Hendrick's ball over the bar, while Irish midfielder Hendrick also tested Watford keeper Daniel Bachmann from distance.
Hendrick headed another chance over soon after the restart and Wednesday appeared to have won a penalty when Anthony Musaba went to ground, with referee Dean Whitestone initially pointing to the spot.
However, Whitestone reversed that decision after consulting with his fellow officials and the Hornets grew in strength as the second half progressed.
They sent Asprilla on in place of Tom Ince for the final 12 minutes - and the 19-year-old promptly delivered by netting his first goal of the season, bursting infield to fire home on his left foot.
Wednesday could not find a response and stay three points adrift of Rotherham at the foot of the table, having played an extra game.
Watford head coach Valerien Ismael told BBC Three Counties Radio:
"It was really important to win for everyone, for our fans, for the club and the people who work for the club - and to get the confidence back.
"It was a tough game, you play against an opponent who has just changed manager so you are flying blind. In our situation you have to stay calm - it was 0-0 at half-time and for the first time the whole squad is available, so we had more options.
"The bench won the game today - we have young players with big potential and we have to stay patient with them.
"It was important (for Asprilla) to open his goal record. It means we spread the responsibility on more shoulders - it's not one guy that makes the difference."
Sheffield Wednesday manager Danny Rohl told BBC Radio Sheffield:
"I had a feeling - I said to my coaches 'there's something in the air and we can take something today'. We did everything on the pitch, we've been nasty against them and it was very hard to beat us.
"We had a good opportunity to go in front with a penalty, but the ref took it back. Then maybe the match is different - if you are in front, the opponent has to take more risks and we can speed up our game if we win the ball and go for the counter-attacks.
"At the end it was a good step forward, but without points it's always disappointing.
"We trained hard this week, we saw a lot of good things and we will take the good things to the next match and go forward. I'm sure if we play like this, we will take more points in future."