2:10pm Wednesday 28th July 2010
By Anthony Matthews
Malky Mackay felt his Watford side rediscovered their form last night as their pre-season campaign got back to winning ways with a 2-0 victory at Stevenage.
Having been made to work hard during the first third of the match at the League Two newcomers, the Hornets gradually took charge towards the end of the first half and built on this after the break to run out winners with goals from Stephen McGinn and Marvin Sordell.
“That’s back to what I’ve been watching in pre-season in training every day,” a satisfied Hornets boss said afterwards.
“I think we were clear in the way we were going to play tonight and I think, through patience and hard work, we then picked our passes and opened them up at certain points.
“I was delighted with some of the younger ones and also the fact some of the experienced ones, who I watched at Coventry and the last day of the season and saw how good they are, were back to that again tonight.”
The clean sheet was in marked contrast to the Hornets’ error-strewn defensive display at Northampton Town three days previously when the visitors were arguably fortunate to escape with a 3-3 draw.
Asked about the improvement at the back, in contrast to the display at Sixfields, Mackay responded: “I think it’s your personal pride, personal performance, the way you approach the game and they came here tonight knowing they were going to be in for a game and that’s what we should have done against Northampton.
“But I think tonight it was back to what I’ve been watching every day in pre-season. They can feel it in there themselves. At half-time they felt it. I said to them ‘how do you feel?’ And they were ‘this is good’ and if we keep working like this the openings will happen and you saw the space that opened up in the second half only through the hard work of the first half and that’s vital. You do the basics properly then the openings well appear.
“I thought Danny Graham again was magnificent tonight and young Marvin Sordell looked like a man up front next to him and caused countless problems.”
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