Misery at Deepdale provides ample motivation
The desire to put right the wrongs of the away defeat at Deepdale and the need to back up Saturday’s win at Derby provide plenty of inspiration ahead of the game with Preston at Vicarage Road tonight (Tuesday).
The Hornets were woeful when they were beaten 3-0 in the reverse fixture and they cannot afford to play like that if they want to build on the 2-0 win at Pride Parke on Saturday.
“We want to put right the away game at Preston and also get our home form back on track,” said head coach Tom Cleverley.
“We’re looking forward to getting back to Vicarage Road after a good points return from two games on the road last week.
“Now is the time of the season where you want to start putting one, two, three performances and results together.
“As long as we back up what we did on Saturday with a performance where we value the basics as much as we possibly can, then you become a consistent team.
“You might not win every game but you’ll become hard to beat, and that is what we need to be first and foremost.
“There’s no doubt about the quality of the squad but we have to back that up with the basics of winning first and second contacts, matching runners, winning duals.
“If we do that between now and the end of the season we’ll be a tough team to beat.”
The league table shows Preston below halfway with only away win, but Cleverley remembers what happened when the teams met earlier in the season.
“We know from the Deepdale it’ll be tough,” he said.
“We got well beaten that night and we didn’t compete well enough or protect our channels well enough.
“I thought we competed excellently at Derby and that us what we need to do again against Preston.
“We want to try and get control of the game with the ball but Preston have lost less games than us.
“They are in a worse league position but they’ve lost less games and they are a hard team to beat.”
The head coach said he hadn’t been surprised at the way his team played against Derby as he had seen a step-up in their work at the training ground.
“The three days preparation we had before the Derby I saw the lads really had the bit between their teeth,” he reflected.
“It wasn’t a group feeling sorry themselves, it was a group that was determined to show that Tuesday at Cardiff wasn’t the version of ourselves we want to show.
“The training standards were excellent last week so I wasn’t surprised to see that backed up by the performance on Saturday.
“A win then helps the atmosphere around the training ground.”
