Watford’s on-field captain Wesley Hoedt spoke after the Hornets reached the fourth round of the Emirates FA Cup after a 2-1 victory against Chesterfield.
The Dutchman reacted after the Hornets bounced back from trailing 1-0 at the break to beat the National League leaders with a stoppage time Tom Dele-Bashiru goal.
Read what Hoedt had to say below…
It was a very, very bad first half in which we didn’t show up. I think the manager spoke well and fair at half-time, and credit to the guys, we responded in the right way. In the end we got what we wanted and I think we deserved it as well.
In the first half we had a very big chance with Koné, just before they scored. Of course it’s going to be difficult when they score. I think credit to the gaffer and the staff for waking us up. I think we should have taken the chances in the second half better as well and the game would have changed around earlier.
In the first half it was just way too slow from the whole team. It was not only about the FA Cup but also getting back to winning ways was important and I think our fans deserved a win.
Playing in the FA Cup is nice every time; our assistant coach [Dean Whitehead] told us how nice it can be. My personal preference [in the next round] would be to go to one of the big teams in the Premier League to have a nice game and measure yourself against strikers at that level.
All credit to a lot of guys who haven’t been having a lot of minutes lately. We had Dan [Bachmann] back in between the posts, which was brilliant and nice for the team. James Morris has been out for a long time and has now played three in a row; he did well. Also Dele for the winner. He has been playing right-back for the last few games which is not easy, but he came back into the midfield [in the second half] and scored a great goal.
As a leader on the pitch, I want to set an example by winning my duels and I think today that’s what I showed and I won almost every duel. I try to ignite the fire in all of my team-mates to be up there for the battle and then we have to bring the quality on the ball.
