Yahoo Sport 
Porteous back to form on the pitch after summer of turmoil
Watching him nip in to steal the ball, crush opponents to win headers and then surge forward to add to the attack, against West Brom Ryan Porteous looked back to the player that impressed so much when he first moved to Watford in January 2023.
The big, strong defender quickly won the Hornets fans over when he joined from Hibs, and was a permanent fixture in the team.
It was only earlier in this season that Porteous found himself on the fringes for a while, starting only three of the first eight Championship matches.
The Scotsman is the first to admit that his dip in club form followed a tumultuous summer during which he was sent off playing for his country in the opening game of the Euro 2024 finals against hosts Germany.
His red card was picked apart by the media and because of the high profile that a major tournament brings, Porteous found his sending off being discussed on national television.
Little surprise, then, that such an incident took its toll – but Porteous has played the full 90 minutes of the last six Watford games, which have delivered three wins, three draws and three clean sheets.
It looks and feels like he is back to himself.
“It’s difficult to say because I’m not watching my own performances,” grinned the 25-year-old.
“If it looks like I am then that’s brilliant, because for me it’s all about keeping my performances up and getting a rhythm.
“If I do that then I can hopefully put myself back in contention for a starting place for Scotland.
“That’s my top priority. A lot of people might shy away from playing for their country after what happened in the summer, but I really just want to get back out there.”
Porteous has talked candidly about the mental effects of the red card and the aftermath that followed, and talking generally has been key to getting himself back on track.
“I think I was helped with conversations I had with the manager and other people within the club, over the course of the season so far, and I just needed games and rhythm to get the summer out of my mind,” he said.
“I think now I’m giving more free-flowing performances.
“They’re not perfect performances but defensively I think we look a lot more solid.
“West Brom maybe had a couple of chances in the first half that they could have taken, but ultimately we are doing a better job of keeping the goals out at home.
“Away from home we still need to solidify that.”
Beating Albion, who hadn’t lost any of their previous 12 games, sent a message out to the rest of the Championship.
“Exactly that, it was a statement win,” said Porteous.
“It’s always been the games we need to win at home that we have done.
“We can keep going on about letting ourselves down away from home, but we’re a good few games unbeaten now and those points we’ve picked up away from home might turn out to be very valuable.
“It’s not been brilliant away but as long as we keep picking up points and plugging away then I think it’s all really positive.”
Yesterday the Hornets could and perhaps should have been out of sight before Albion made it 2-1.
As the tide turned in the visitors’ favour, so the noise increased from the Watford fans who sensed they were needed to help hold onto the three points.
“Yeah that was brilliant, and I was thinking that during the game,” said Porteous.
“I usually block a lot of the crowd noise out, but today I noticed that around about the 85th minute our fans were singing the same song over and over to keep us going.
“As soon as the clock hit 70 minutes, they were cheering us on and it does really help.
“When the fans do that you don’t feel as tired and it keeps you switched on.
“The fans have done that all season here, so a lot of credit to them.
“It was a six-pointer today, one of those fixtures where you have a couple of games in hand but you look at the table and it doesn’t look so great.
“But if you win the games, especially against top teams like West Brom who hadn’t lost for 12 games, then it’s great.
“It was very tough and almost the complete performance from us, and it would have been had we kept a clean sheet.”
The goal Watford conceded clearly annoyed Porteous – you certainly didn’t need to be an expert in body language to know that!
“When Mikey Johnston came on it was a case of ‘show him down the line’ and we probably didn’t do that enough,” admitted Porteous.
“We’d done our homework on him and I played against him for years, and we know he’s going to come inside and shoot.
“So yeah I wasn’t happy, because it happened three or four times, and these are the small margins in games.
“If it had only been 1-0 it would have been even more frustrating.
“It’s only a small thing though and ultimately results are the most important thing.”
The change of shape, which saw Porteous partner Mattie Pollock in the middle of a back four, may have surprised many.
“It’s good to have that kind of flexibility and maybe catch teams off guard a little bit if they think we’re playing a three or a five,” said Porteous.
“It was a big contrast from Hull.
“A lot of people might have thought that we were boring against Hull but I think up until the 70th minute they didn’t really create any chances.
“But then we went to a four and maybe left ourselves a little bit more exposed.
“So we were prepared for that today and when you have a lot of quality players on the pitch who can win you a game then that’s the balancing act.
“It was a good performance and good to have that flexibility.”
Porteous explained a little more about how the defence operated against West Brom.
“In the first half we went single pivot with the No.6, and when you’re playing centre half you don’t want to be dragged too far out to the flank and leave yourselves one v one in the middle.
“In the second half we went double pivot and I think that worked well, and then when Francisco came on we had five and that solidified things a bit more.”
At the other end of the pitch, there were two more goals for a player who is often the target for the fans when things don’t go so well.
“Vakoun Bayo has been brilliant,” said Porteous.
“Box to box he’s probably the best striker I’ve played with, and all it’s about adding goals to his games.
“He is the most unselfish striker I’ve played with and what he does for the team in all aspects, whether that’s defending set plays, attacking players, whatever – he does his job all the time.
“If you give him service like we did today then it just takes that little bit of confidence that he’s clearly had for the last couple of months.
“It’s good to see him scoring and everybody is so delighted for him because he does so much work for the team.
“Potentially, maybe fans don’t see what he does like the players do.
“The hardest thing in football is to score goals, and he maybe gets a little bit of unfair stick.
“I can understand why fans might give him that, but I can also understand that they maybe don’t see the hard work that his teammates see.”
It was also a very impressive first home start for Rocco Vata, who Porteous knew from his time with Hibs.
“I think I might have played against him in his debut actually,” said the defender, who was spot on: he was in the Hibs team beaten 4-0 by Celtic on December 28, 2022, when Vata came off the bench for his first senior appearance with six minutes left.
“I spoke to a lot of people in Scotland before he came here and I was aware he was a top player.
“He’s still very young and not played a lot of first-team games, but he’s one of those players who will get fans off their seats.
“Give him the ball and he comes alive.
“It’s refreshing to see someone that’s like that, and he’s probably the winger that Scotland could probably do with.
“I’m not sure if he has completely chosen Ireland yet – I’ve not had that conversation with him but I’m going to!
“If he keeps playing as the way he is now for the next couple of years then I reckon there’s a left winger space in the Scotland team if he wants it!”
