Joao Pedro Watford
Assistant coach Ray Lewington has said he doesn’t care if Watford are ‘hopeless’ on the weekend just so long as they beat Burnley. The ‘Orns desperately need a win to keep their hopes of Premier League survival alive. On top of that, they need a victory to salvage their pride as they come into the match having now lost their last ten games at Vicarage Road in a row. Indeed, manager Roy Hodgson has not managed to pick up a single point at home since taking over in January. When asked if his club faced a hopeless situation,
Ray Lewington explained: “To be quite honest, I couldn’t care less if we were absolutely hopeless here tomorrow, and we scratch a 1-0 win, you know. That’s what we need. These boys need to win and need to win at home I think. Just for just a little bit of a kick. And so the answer to your question, it’s never a hopeless case, until the actual points total you can’t get. And we’ll just keep carrying on because football turns up situations like this.”
He then spoke more directly in regard to the club’s aforementioned poor home record, which has been a key factor in the Watford’s inability to lift themselves out of the bottom three.
Ray Lewington said: “Obviously, you can’t go with the length of time that we have, without winning a home game, to feel comfortable. We’ve got to scratch for every single thing. And you know, tomorrow will be a tough game anyway, because Burnley make it a tough game, a physically hard game. But as I say, we’ve got to get out there. And hopefully, this is a game where we get a little bit of confidence.”
Lewington ended with a rallying call for the ‘fantastic’ home crowd. While he also acknowledged them for standing by him, Hodgson, and the players despite the trying times.
Ray Lewington said: “The crowd have been really good. I don’t know how they keep going. Because it must be very hard for them. But the crowd has been fantastic. And even when we’ve not been particularly good, they’ve never really turned against us. And you know, with the amount of games we’ve lost at home, you might think that they would do that. But to be fair, they’ve stuck with us. We’ll need them more than ever tomorrow. And I’m sure that they will come through as well. But we know, we have to give them something to shout about. You know, they want to see the intent there. And that’s what we got to show tomorrow.”
