After his Watford team battled to a 1-0 victory against Championship underdog Sheffield Wednesday at home, Valerien Ismael lauded his team. Danny Röhl’s stay with the Owls got off to a losing start thanks to a magnificent solo effort by replacement Yaser Asprilla eight minutes from time.
The Hornets’ victory marked their first in six games. We haven’t had a lot of success, our level of confidence isn’t very high, and our opponents recently changed managers, which makes pregame preparations practically impossible.
We were ready because we have a strong understanding of football within the club; we had looked at his former club and had a solid concept of what to expect.
“But we don’t enter games with the kind of assurance that makes us believe we will destroy the opposition. Hopefully, if you continue to win games and gain momentum, it will happen.
Then, in order to establish the proper perspective, we had to cope with the opponents making eight changes and entirely refreshing their team.
The Hornets moved up to 19th after the win, five points above the danger zone. “At the end of the first half, we started to make mistakes again and again, and that helped the confidence of the opponent,” remarked Ismael.
We had to cope with that, and I believe that the adjustments we made in the second half helped us regain the lead and give the players more stability. We had a clean sheet, were more stable defensively, and then scored. When you consider it that way and in that moment’s context, we are happy.
Ismael believed that their bench significantly influenced the outcome in their favour. “Ken Sema came back and was brilliant, Giorgi Chakvetadze, Ismael Kone, Mileta Rajovic fought like a tiger today and then Yaser Asprilla finished the job,” he stated.
“We are demonstrating collaboration and team spirit more frequently. We don’t count on a single or a small number of players to make the difference.
Now that any player can make a difference at any time, maybe this outcome will inspire greater effort and help us gain momentum.
Wednesday’s losing streak now stands at 12 games. Having just collected three points this year, they are still at the bottom of the standings.
