Hornets unlucky not to take all three
Last updated : 24 September 2006 By Paul Farrington
 | Emile Heskey |
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As it happens, Watford could and probably should have taken all three points away from the JJB Stadium yesterday.
They have the hunger that saw the home side survive and flourish last term. Instead the home dressing room seemed to have too many big time charlie's in it who were unprepared to put the effort in.
Emile Heskey was particularly disappointing as the England international couldn't get the better of man-mountain Danny Shittu. Svetoslav Todorov was left to watch Heskey shy-away from confrontation with the imposing defender. He wasn't given a chance to produce his magic.
Valencia had an off day on the right, Landzaat was below average again, and Hall and Boyce have yet to command the defence well.
One the up side, Kevin Kilbane looked determined and had good impetus down the left, he offers a different approach to Lee McCulloch down the flank.
With eleven new signings it was always going to take time for them to settle and start producing their best football. Jewell has got his work cut out to get this bunch organised and hungry before we get sucked too far down the table.
Here is the match reaction from those who matter.
Chris Hutchings
 | Paul Jewell and Chris Hutchings |
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"If you don't take your chances then you won't win games, and we are very disappointed. We had three great chances, one of which we took, and whilst we were only one-nil up the opposition have always got a chance.
"It wasn't a free flowing game, and Watford made life difficult with the way they play, but at the end of the day we gave a silly free kick away which allowed them back into the game.
"Henri Camara was caught on a few occasions along with one or two others and that probably plays on their minds a little bit. He took his goal well, but the other two chances went begging. He could have had three goals in the first half, and the game could have been wrapped up.
"We didn't get the ball down and pass it as well as we can, and that was a disappointing factor. We need to have more strength and belief in the ability to get the ball down and play. Overall we are not too pleased with the performance.
"Watford have a way of playing that suits their players, but unfortunately we didn't deal with it very well today. They've got pace up front with Marlon King, and they caused us problems which we didn't deal with."
Aidy Bothroyd | Aidy Bothroyd |
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"I think the second half performance meant that a point was the least we deserved.
"The first half wasn't good, in fact we were very, very average in my opinion but after the break we showed more of what we're about, imposed ourselves on the game and really could have come away with all three points.
"Obviously, we've got a goal today which is a positive. It took a restart for us to do that which is always something we work on but the first half was not acceptable for any of us."
"I think that Wigan expected a physical game but in the first half we weren't a team. That changed after half time, we looked more up for it.
"I'm not a ranter and raver at half time. I just said to them that we needed to do more, show people what we're about and in the second half we managed to do that.
"I'm not too concerned that we haven't won yet. If we were spending every game defending for our lives or playing frightened, I'd have a major problem but in my opinion, we're taking one step at a time and we'll start winning matches.
"We work hard at what we do, now it's about getting on the training ground, practising and making sure we take that into matches.
"I had a little go at the fourth official about their goal but, having seen what happened, I can see it was the correct decision so I apologised to him. Well done to the referee.
"The free kick came from the training gournd.It was excellent. I'm really pleased for Hameur, he took his chance really well today. He's not been a regular and was excellent at times before running out of steam.He causes the opposition problems."