Vladimir Ivic calls for better concentration from Watford

Posted Sunday, November 08, 2020 by PA

Vladimir Ivic believes Watford must continue to work on their focus during games after they moved up to second in the Championship with a 3-2 win over Coventry.

A stunning second half saw Andre Gray give the hosts the lead, before Coventry quickly went ahead through Gustavo Hamer and Tyler Walker.

A William Troost-Ekong equaliser and an Ismaila Sarr penalty earned victory at Vicarage Road, in a game that also saw Troy Deeney return to action.

Serb Ivic was content with the win, but felt his side would need more work during the upcoming international break.

He said: “Letting in two goals quickly is something that is not good for us. No-one is happy because of the two goals in three minutes.

“We need to know how to control our result. It’s not the first time that we have a result and our opponent comes back and changes the score.

“It’s some psychological problem and we need to work on that.

“Troy is a very important player for us, his quality is not questionable. We have two weeks now to work with him and prepare him for a better physical condition.

“We have a good team, a good athletic team, a fast team with a lot of fast players. A young team.”

After a largely dull first half, where Maxime Biamou should have put Coventry ahead with a header in the 23rd minute, Callum O’Hare forced Watford keeper Ben Foster to tip over the bar two minutes after the restart.

Watford took the lead after 54 minutes. Ken Sema powered his way to the byline, and cut the ball back for Gray, making his first league start in almost a year, and the striker was in the right place to scramble home from close range.

The game turned on its head in an amazing three-minute period that saw Coventry take the lead before being pegged back.

The visitors equalised in the 63rd minute when Hamer was first to a bounce from outside the area and his header had enough power to leave Foster stranded and loop into the net.

A minute later, the goalscorer found Biamou, who laid the ball off to Walker to drill home past the outstretched goalkeeper.

Watford equalised after 66 minutes when Troost-Ekong headed home a corner by James Garner.

The home side took the lead again seven minutes from time from the penalty spot. O’Hare handled a shot by Sarr and the Senegalese forward sent goalkeeper Marko Marosi the wrong way.

Defeat left Coventry with just a single point on their travels this season, and just one place above the relegation zone.

Manager Mark Robins was quick to praise the effort of his side both at Vicarage Road and in the previous game, which ended in defeat to Nottingham Forest.

He said: “It’s no consolation, this week we’ve been away at Forest and here at Watford, and we’ve deserved something out of both games.

“Whether we deserved to win in either of them is debatable.

“With no crowd you have no negative energy from the supporters, and you have to create the momentum yourselves.

“We’ve shot ourselves in the foot two games on the bounce, and it doesn’t help. Performance wise, we should be talking about the chances we’ve created.

“We’ve got to cut out the silly mistakes, which we must work on during this international break.”