As I write Watford have still to play their league game against Southampton which given that the league cup tie against us is only 48 hours later will only mean one thing, 11 changes from the side that plays today. They have a useful squad mainly picked from abroad with an Italian owner and a Spanish manager who has managed a couple of games and has yet to be sacked which given the Hornets recent record is no mean feat. They appear to have a positive outlook on the game scoring goals wins you games. So it won't be dull on Tuesday. Interesting for Grayson do we play our strongest side or give some more game time to the likes of Browne and Brownhill. Should be fun this one
Although the scoreline was only 1-0 personal view was that North End cruised through to the next round of the Capital One cup where they will meet Bournemouth at home. As predicted Watford made 11 changes from Sunday's game and in truth it showed as my view was for the vast amount of this game they were not overly interested. The only goal came after 8 minutes and had a bit of fortune about it Brownhill's mishit shot dribbled into the box, Vermaijl was first to pounce and fired past Lithuanian keeper Arlauskis. Watford passed the ball around well but in a very low key first half rarely threatened apart from Layun effort on the stroke of half time. North End when in possession played well. As with Watford North End rarely looked like scoring although would have been interesting if they had put the keeper under more pressure as he looked decidedly dodgy. The second half was more entertaining, Garner and Kilkenny had chances to increase the lead in Kilkenny's case just could not shift the ball into a decent position to take a pop at goal. Reid als had a glorious chance but his shot went narrowly the wrong side of the post. Watford began to look a little more dangerous with Paredas using his pace to cause the home side problems. Forestieri had a glorious chance to the level the sore but his shot from the edge of the 6 yard box went out for a throw in. Watson then had a shot from thye edge of the box well saved by Pickford. Before the corner could be taken there was the usual pushing and shoving in the box however Britos elbowed Wright in the face. The incident was missed by the referee but not by the linesman. A reluctant Mr Martin eventually ambled over to the linesman and the eventual outcome was a red card for the Uruguyan. From then it was plain sailing for the home side. Preston North End 1 Watford 0 Att 6250 QUIQUE SANCHEZ FLORES admitted there are plenty of lessons to learn for the Hornets after this evening’s Capital One Cup defeat at the hands of Preston North End. The Hornets’ Head Coach also rued the timing of Miguel Britos’ second-half sending off, coming as it did, just as Watford looked like threatening to force an equalising goal. “We’re disappointed with the result,” remarked Flores, speaking exclusively to Hornets PlayerHD after full-time. “In the second-half we had reached a point where we were close to the goal and we had two or three very clear attempts in different situations, but in this moment we received the sending off of Britos and after that it was very difficult to play 10 against 11. “We tried to work hard, and we have learnt a lot. We tried to use this match to check players because it is very important to know how they are involved, so for us it is good information we have from the game. “Some players haven’t played an official match in a long time, only in pre-season, so it is important to know this kind of information because it is different to the information we receive every single day in the training ground.” There were wholesale changes to Watford’s starting XI tonight at Deepdale, and despite the result, Flores believes the experience will serve his players well as they look to take on board the new Head Coach’s ideas. “The information we take after this match is good because we can correct the players,” he said. “When the players are playing every weekend it’s different because they feel involved in the team, they know the mechanism of the system and the shape. “But sometimes when you are watching the match as a player outside the pitch it is a little bit different, it is a bit complicated sometimes to work well on the pitch. “We will correct all the mistakes, and when you lose sometimes it is very easy to learn.”After the game Lilyhwites boss Simon Grayson spoke to PNE Player and was very pleased with his side’s effort against the top flight outfit. “We are very pleased with how we did tonight,” he said. “Regardless of the changes Watford made, they have some fantastic players and no matter who came into our team they knew they had to work hard, be disciplined, keep their shape and ultimately somewhere down the line we were going to get chances. “The early goal gave us a good confidence boost and throughout the game we did well. We limited them to very few opportunities and we had some good opportunities ourselves to extend the lead, so we are very pleased we have put on a good performance against a very talented Watford outfit. “It is not their priority this season, but we have still put on a good performance and picked up a result against a Premier League side.” The decision to select Vermijl in a front three may have come as a surprise to many outside the coach’s room at Deepdale, but the manager made the decision with options limited to him and it proved a master-stroke. “We know Marnick is an attacking full back and we were short of numbers, so we made a few changes because one or two were carrying knocks from the weekend, but the players were adaptable to what we did,” he added. “Josh [Brownhill] is claiming it was a great ball, but it was more of a miss-hit shot, but they all count and Marnick took the opportunity well and it gave us a good early opportunity to build on.”
