Burnley's leading scorer Josh Brownhill celebrates his eighth Championship goal of the season
Burnley kept pace with the Championship's top two as they eased past Watford 2-1 at Turf Moor to preserve their unbeaten home record.
The hosts hit the front early on when Zian Flemming let Josh Brownhill's left-wing cross run through for Bournemouth loanee Jaidon Anthony to volley in at the back post.
Scott Parker's side deservedly doubled their lead after the hour when slick build-up from Anthony and Hannibal Mejbri teed up Brownhill to curl a fine finish into the corner.
Watford had rarely threatened but set up a tense finish when Giorgi Chakvetadze's corner was only half-cleared to Kwadwo Baah who volleyed in.
It was just the ninth goal the EFL's meanest defence had conceded, but Burnley saw out a deserved sixth league win from eight games to stay within a point of second-placed Leeds, while the Hornets remain seventh, a point outside the play-off spots.
The Clarets bossed the first half, but a side which had scored just eight goals in their previous nine home matches, had just Anthony's first home goal of his loan spell to show for their dominance.
Watford keeper Daniel Bachmann had to tip away Anthony's goalbound inswinging corner, while Hannibal should have done better than fire inches wide after finding time and space on the edge of the Hornets' box.
Tom Cleverley's side - who have picked up just eight points from a possible 33 on the road this season - improved after the break but fell further behind to Brownhill's eighth goal of the campaign.
The visitors failed to trouble James Trafford until the 66th minute when Francisco Sierralta's close-range strike forced the Burnley keeper into a point-blank save.
Anthony continued to impress and was denied a second by Bachmann's low save, but Baah's fourth goal of the season left Burnley - unbeaten in 11 matches - hanging on a little through nine minutes of stoppage-time.
'They ran more and tackled harder' - reaction
Burnley boss Scott Parker told BBC Radio Lancashire:
"Overall the performance was very good today and I thought we dominated for large parts.
"We get our noses in front, which is probably something we've been lacking a little bit, and were well worthy of our goal in the first half.
"The slight negative was we could have had a few more. The second half they changed their system, but credit to the boys, they recognised that fairly early and then caused them problems.
"Back end of the game after that goal goes in, it's survival mode a little bit because there's no real tactics for that moment. You just need a group of men to manage the game and we did that very well."
Watford head coach Tom Cleverley told BBC Three Counties Radio:
"I think the scoreline flatters us - I've told that to the players. That could have been a lot more convincing (for Burnley) and was nowhere near an acceptable performance from us today.
"They showed more personality to play on the ball, they showed better problem-solving but, most worryingly, they ran more and tackled harder.
"In fairness to the players they always have responded well to a performance like that, but if we're serious about our ambitions this season we have to have a better mindset in these away games where you are going to suffer setbacks."
