Today we gave the game away and that’s not like us
Javi Gracia saw Watford score an away goal for the first time under his management today, seven months after he replaced Marco Silva at Vicarage Road. They went on to score three to beat us 3-1 and he was delighted at the end of the game.
“I was very pleased after the first game and today as well,” he said. “I know it’s not easy to get points here and I think we have played a good game to have won and get the points. We have scored three goals, and the two early in the second half mean we could manage the game.”
Gray it was that opened the scoring. “He is a great player, a great person,” Gracia said. “Last season he didn’t play so much but he was always helping the team. He deserved his goal today.”
He added: “We didn’t change anything at half time. We thought we were doing very good things. We just needed to be more aggressive in the last metres. We have created more chances than them and we managed to score two good goals.”
Sean Dyche was disappointed, not just in the way we lost the game, but also in the decision not to send off Will Hughes for a challenge on Stephen Ward. “It’s unfortunate that the goal (Watford’s third) came from a player who shouldn’t have been on the pitch. It should have been a sending off for a really, really poor challenge right in front of me. I was only four feet away and I know about those tackles from my day as a defender, but those days are gone.
“It was bizarre. As peculiar as the game is these days, we see the cheating and diving everywhere and yet when someone is completely out of control, tackling a player who is off the pitch, he only gets a yellow card and they get a throw in. How on earth that is anything other than a red card, but that’s the game, so we just have to get on with it.”
He did admit: “Credit to Watford because they saw the game out well after they got the third. We kept probing and playing, but we looked nervy and stopped being as creative. Balanced into that, they saw it out properly and effectively.”
“Unfortunately, today we gave the game away and that’s not like us. Credit to Watford for seeing the game through, but we gave it to them to be honest. It was a quiet start from ourselves and they capitalised on that, and for the rest of the half we played well, had some very dominant periods and opened them up and got in some fantastic positions.
“I still want more from us when we get into those positions, not just from the strikers but from everyone, to drive and want to score the goal. We got into some great positions and created enough to score more than the one goal.
“So, at half time, we’re looking at it and thinking we are in good shape. Then the first five minutes of the second half changed it all. The second goal, their lad gets between the lines, and at 1-2 I still think we are right in the game, but it’s the third goal really coming so quickly that does it.”
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