MX23RW : Friday, December 11 13:40:29| >> :120:68371:68371:
Nov 28, 2020 at 3pm UK at Vicarage Road
WatfordWatford
4-1
PrestonPreston North End
Quina (9'), Deeney (52' pen.), Chalobah (58'), Pedro (74')
Garner (23')
FT(HT: 1-0)

Vladimir Ivic believes the best is yet to come from Watford

Vladimir Ivic believes the best is yet to come from Watford
© Reuters
Watford are currently third in the table.

Watford manager Vladimir Ivic believes his side can play better, despite an impressive 4-1 victory over Preston.

An inspired performance by captain Troy Deeney, making his first start of the season, contributed to a comfortable performance.

Watford are currently third in the table, but Ivic thinks his side have room for improvement.

He said: "It was one of the best performances of the season, today I believe we had a good game. This was not our best performance.

"This is our target, to play better and be able to play every game like this, to improve some details during the game.

"When we have games every three to four days, we need to take care of a lot of things, not just the games.

"When you have a lot of injured players you need to be smart in how to use them.

"I could speak about Troy Deeney and his quality, and how he's important for the team, I don't think it's a doubt.

"He did his job today, it's the first game he's started and I expect he'll be available in the next games to help us."

The hosts took the lead on nine minutes when Domingos Quina connected to a cross by Ismaila Sarr, to volley home past Declan Rudd.

The lead was doubled eight minutes after the restart from the penalty spot when Sarr was upended in the area after a challenge by Jordan Storey, and Deeney stepped up to mark his return to the starting line-up with his first goal of the campaign.

Things looked set to get uncomfortable for Watford, two minutes after doubling their advantage, when a long-range effort by Tom Barkhuizen took a deflection off James Garner to wrong-foot Foster.

However, the two-goal advantage was restored on 59 minutes, when Deeney set up Nathaniel Chalobah to guide the ball past Rudd before Joao Pedro sealed a resounding win at the back post from a corner.

Preston manager Alex Neil thought his side, while ravaged by injury, was let down by poor defending.

"It was always going to be a difficult game for us, if you look at Watford's squad coming down from the Premier League, they're full of quality players," Neil said.

"If you look at what we've got missing at the moment, we don't have a fit full back four or even cover for one.

"To be honest I thought it was a good competitive match for sixty minutes and then we just don't defend some basic stuff in the box well enough.

"When you give Watford goals quite cheaply, you find it doubly difficult to get into the game.

"As soon as the fourth goal goes in, the game is over at that point."

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Tables
TeamPWDLFAGDPTS
1Norwich CityNorwich1710432316734
2Bournemouth1787229161331
3Swansea CitySwansea178631910930
4Reading179352721630
5Bristol City179352016430
6Brentford177732415928
7Stoke CityStoke178452420428
8Watford167632012827
9Cardiff CityCardiff177552314926
10Blackburn RoversBlackburn1774631201125
11Middlesbrough166641613324
12Huddersfield TownHuddersfield177372222024
13Preston North EndPreston177282525023
14Luton TownLuton176561420-623
15Birmingham CityBirmingham175751415-122
16Barnsley176471922-322
17Millwall174941414021
18Queens Park RangersQPR174671825-718
19Coventry CityCoventry174671826-818
20Rotherham UnitedRotherham1734101525-1013
21Nottingham ForestNott'm Forest1734101021-1113
22Derby CountyDerby17269822-1412
23Wycombe WanderersWycombe1725101025-1511
24Sheffield WednesdaySheff Weds17368917-89

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