Wesley Hoedt spoke to watfordfc.com after a well-earned goalless draw with second-placed Ipswich Town in the Sky Bet Championship.
The captain, who was part of a defensive line that prevented the Tractor Boys from scoring at Portman Road for only the second time this season, spoke about the Hornets’ latest positive performance against a promotion-chasing opponent.
Read what he had to say below...
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It was a good performance from us and I think we deserved the point. They had some good spells but we saw it through in the first half, then in the first 20 minutes of the second half I think we were dominating and we were playing our game but we couldn’t be very dangerous in front of the goal. In the end the crowd gets behind their team and of course it is a bit difficult, but in the end it is a well-deserved point and another great display in which we showed that we can compete with the best.
[Becoming only the second team to prevent Ipswich from scoring at home] is a nice stat but I would have rather conceded and won. It was a great shift from the whole team and it’s a solid performance which we can build on. If you look at the last few games, we’ve played Leeds, West Brom and Ipswich, and they’re all high-ranked teams. The performances we’ve given are great but we are due a win as well. It’s a bit of a mixed feeling but overall it’s a great performance.
If you see the reaction of our travelling fans, who were there in great numbers again – so thanks to them – their reaction is positive so you can see that we are one group which wants to fight for each other and wants to run, and against those three high-ranked teams I think we did great.
I’m already 30 so I’ve played in a lot of systems so for me it [a back three] is no different. It brings a bit more clarity to the team and everyone knows we have people who can cover for each other, which is something you saw today. If somebody makes a mistake or slips or makes a bad pass, there are 10 other players who want to put their bodies on the line for their teammate, so I think that’s the biggest difference and it’s been a good switch. We couldn’t really be dangerous today; we had a big chance at the end with Edo Kayembe but I think a draw was fair for both teams.
The Watford supporters have been amazing away all season. They’ve always turned up in numbers, even in the moments when we were not performing, and as captain of the team I want to thank them because it’s really nice to have the away support, especially for the youngsters. It’s a really positive thing and luckily we have been performing a little bit better lately.
