We have built a resilience here
The last time Nigel Pearson managed a team at Burnley he saw his Leicester City side win 1-0 in what was a relegation battle, at the time, for both clubs, but he couldn’t repeat that tonight with his relegation haunted Watford going down 1-0 to the Clarets.
After the game, he said: “I feel it’s a big of a missed opportunity, and that’s not to take anything away from Burnley because I think they played well and saw the game out pretty effectively once they’d taken the lead.
“But we’d spurned opportunities, and in the first half we made too many unforced errors and that caused us too many problems. Even though we had some promising moments in the first half, we allowed ourselves to be bullied at times.
“But the second half performance was pretty positive, I think we spent a lot of time dictating the play for pretty long periods but conceded a goal from a goal kick which was pretty annoying for us.”
He added: “At half time I thought we needed to make changes, because we were not either dominating periods or we weren’t dealing with their threats well enough. Sometimes it’s just about making changes to freshen it up.
“We’re not going to play the same team in every game we play, certainly not when we play three games in a week in the temperatures we have at the moment. it’s also about the risk of certain players in picking injuries up. We needed to do it, it’s not rocket science, and it would be naïve to think we would play every game with exactly the same personnel.
“I think Danny Welbeck did well tonight, to be fair, he showed really good energy levels considering the difficulties he’s had this season in terms of injuries and opportunities and I think he did pretty well.”
Sean Dyche said he was proud of his players after this win. “A A lot has gone on at this football club, and in the town, in the past week and we can’t solve everything with a result, but it’s nice to get one,” he said. “It showed again the resilience in my players and they deserve all the credit for working so hard to gain that result.
“The club have tried to play their part in a really tough period, probably as tough a time as I’ve had here, for different reasons, but the players have been first class to the varying challenges they’ve faced and the way they have conducted themselves. That’s as much to be proud of, as playing football.
“We try and rub off on people off the pitch as individuals, as well as on the pitch as professionals. When all that comes together in tough times, with all that’s been going on, I can only be more proud of what they give to this club.”
Analysing the game, he added: “We were very good for the first half an hour and they came right back into it. But we’ve hit the post, had one cleared off the line and caused them lots of problems.
“It’s hard to dominate a whole game in this league, and for the first 25 minutes of the second half they had us on the back foot, without causing us too many problems. But we found a moment and that’s important. At the end of the day we have built a resilience here and a way of working that is important for this team.
“We’ve come out of a 5-0 loss to a top, top team and the delivery of performance was better, sharper and with the same group of players, don’t forget.”
Follow UpTheClarets:
Share this page :