Tom Cleverley spoke to watfordfc.com after the Hornets drew 0-0 with promotion-chasing Ipswich Town at Portman Road.
Read what he had to say below...
On the performance:
First half they were on top, you can’t argue with that, but second half we came back into it with a lot of quality and courage.
Second half we showed a bit more ambition, a bit more courage in possession and more controlled spells in their half.
The courage that we showed second half to not only stop the ball going in our goal but to try and take control of the game with the ball was excellent.
You can see why they score a lot of goals here. They are dynamic, they have good players one v one, they have good rotations, they are well coached and they are relentless with it.
So to be able to change the dynamic of that in the second half, you have to give our players a lot of credit.
We lost our way a little bit for 25 minutes before half-time. When the momentum comes at this ground it’s hard to change it.
We put that right at half-time, demanded a bit more intensity in the challenges and the second balls, and then we showed real courage to dominate the ball in large parts of the second half and we showed we’re more than capable of competing at this level.
On the defence and clean sheet:
We’re proud of our clean sheet. We know this is a solid base for every season in the Championship.
There were huge performances from all five of them [defenders] plus our goalkeeper. To a man we were very, very good.
[A clean sheet] makes things a lot easier. We’re still trying to find the balance of the team. The last two games we’ve not been as threatening as we’d like but we’ve been solid.
With Leeds and West Brom we were expansive and creating chances, the last two games we’ve gone the other way a little bit and it’s my job to find that real balance in the middle where we’re doing it at both ends.
I’m incredibly proud of the group. We’ve asked them to give everything for the football club and for themselves, and they’ve done it yet again.
Three clean sheets in five is a solid foundation.
On competing with title challengers:
From three games against teams who are all expecting to be in the Premier League next year, we’re right there in the mix in those games so we should take a lot of belief.
We’re setting small markers down with the draw against Leeds, the draw away at West Brom, now the draw away at Ipswich. We want to put one big marker down and win away at Southampton on Saturday; that’s the challenge we face.
The fight, the spirit, this is the absolute bare minimum. It’s sometimes been questioned of us, even when I was a player, it was questioned of this squad.
What isn’t questioned is the quality and ability we have; if we can combine the two we’ve got an exciting time ahead.
On five games unbeaten as Interim Head Coach:
I’m incredibly proud. They [the players] deserve a lot of credit. It’s not an easy time to come in when you’re mid-table, nothing to play for and staring down the barrel of playing four out of the top five in your first five games.
They’ve met it head on, they’ve coped with the high demands we’ve set in training and in games.
Football’s not easy, and if you want to keep churning out these types of performances it’s mentally tough but we showed we’ve got the capacity to do it.
When you retire from football you don’t expect to feel these highs and lows so soon, when points mean so much. To be able to do it for the club which means so much to me, I’m privileged, I feel I’ve worked really hard to get here and I won’t stop working now.
On Edo Kayembe nearly winning it:
That would have been the best goal I’ve ever been present for. It was wind against as well; if it was wind for I think we had every chance. It would have been a special one if it went in.
On Emmanuel Dennis:
Dennis has had this groin issue and we thought it was too big an ask to play Wednesday night, Saturday afternoon. Giorgi [Chakvetadze] came in and did well and it gives us problems for Saturday.
On Mattie Pollock:
Mattie’s been excellent in all three starts he’s had under me. It’s a credit to his character, he did nothing wrong to come out of the team and neither did [Francisco] Sierralta. I’ve got four top centre-halves for this level to rotate between three positions.
I did say to the guys there will be times you are rotated out, even after a good performance and a clean sheet.
We have to keep it fresh. Whichever three centre-halves we put out there, I’m really confident.
On the fans:
They were absolutely excellent again. We feel that presence. It’s not easy to go to Ipswich on a Wednesday night, to Southampton on a Saturday, to Middlesbrough at 12.30pm on the last game of the season.
We feel the support and hard work that it takes to be a Watford supporter and we try to repay that with performances we can be proud about and I think tonight was one of them.
