Vladimir Ivic knows Watford’s away form must improve in promotion bid

Posted Thursday, December 03, 2020 by PA

Vladimir Ivic says Watford must address their away form if they are to sustain a Championship promotion push, following their 0-0 draw at Nottingham Forest.

The Hornets have notched up only one away win in the Championship – and also struggled on the road as they were relegated from the Premier League last season.

It was Chris Hughton’s Forest who looked the more likely to snatch three points from a fiercely contested game at the City Ground, with Lyle Taylor coming close with a header.

But Ivic insists it is not a question of attitude, as his side missed the chance to go top of the Championship table.

“It does not matter if we play home or away, we know what our goals are this season. It is not that we want to win at home and draw away. No, in every game our goal is the same – to win,” said Ivic.

“We prepare ourselves to take three points in every game. In the last 11 months we have only won once away from home. That is not good for a team that wants to win promotion.

“We need to believe in ourselves. We do not want to speak about excuses. We want to fight and we want to play.

“We are very disappointed not to have made their keeper make a save. Offensively we did not create a great deal.

“This Championship is a long marathon and a lot of teams can beat each other. Teams will beat you if you are not at your top level.

“In our last game against Preston we were better. Today, this was our third game in a short amount of time and we did not have a lot of choices on the bench to change things.”

Forest boss Hughton was pleased with his side’s performance, as they ended a run of three consecutive defeats.

“It was a competitive game against a very good offensive team. I think we had to be very disciplined in what we did,” he said.

“Anyone watching the game, I don’t think would see a lack of enthusiasm or work rate. The plusses are that it was a clean sheet against a very good side.

“Joe Worrall played his first game after injury and Cafu made a positive impact on his debut. There were some real plusses. The only negative is that I felt it was a good enough performance to get more from the game.

“I still think we have to make more chances and more opportunities. But we had some good spells in the game. We got into good areas; into some good crossing positions.

“When you get into those positions, you hope that you can create something from it. We did look threatening. But we hope if we continue to work hard, the goals will come.

“Watford are a very good side, you can see why they are where they are in the table.”