Jamal Lewis spoke to the media after the Hornets picked up a much-needed win and clean sheet away to Rotherham United in the Sky Bet Championship.
Read what he had to say below...
Based on our recent results and where we were coming, we knew we were going to have to put in a gritty and determined performance. We managed to put all that together, and a little moment of quality from Yáser [Asprilla] managed to help us get over the line.
We knew it was going to be a very direct game from them, they play five at the back and kick it long any opportunity they can so we knew we had to be compact and defend well, and the boys did. Personally I'm happy to keep a clean sheet, it’s been long overdue, to come away with an away win and three points is very sweet.
It has been disappointing for us recently and we’re well aware that our results haven’t been good enough as a collective. We really wanted to use this game as a turning point, and just push, and just keep the pressure on the teams above, so hopefully it is three points in the right direction, and we can build on it until the end of the season.
I think in the Championship you always have a block of games, whether it is the Christmas period or the start of the season, or the end of the season, where you pick up wins and pick up points and the table looks different for you. Now we have stopped the midweek games, we can look to build, train, get some training under our belts and look to get some points and move up the table hopefully.
We’ve been talking about being clinical in front of goal, defenders helping attackers, and attackers helping defenders, giving us a foothold in the game, helping us to defend and vice versa, so it was disappointing [for Asprilla] not to convert the chance in the first half, but he took something on board at half-time and it was a great strike from him to help us win the game.
Yáser has got a lot of ability, we just need to get hold of him, make sure he does the simple things well because like you’ve seen in the last couple of games, he can do magical things, and help us get some points so it was really good from him.
One hundred per cent, me and Wes [Hoedt] have been talking about a clean sheet. It has been too long for us, at least if you keep clean sheets, earlier in the season, October, November, where we turned our form, at first we kept clean sheets, and you can build from that, whether you nick games 1-0, 2-0, whatever it is. We wanted to go back to that, and we are happy to start again today and hopefully we grab some more before the end of the season.
I think there was especially one that was close in the second half where Francisco [Sierralta] frantically put his body on the line to stop Morrison from getting a shot on target. It was top defending from the centre backs, from the six, from the full-backs, from everyone getting back in, we knew they had a great throw-in, that was almost a corner each set-piece. So we're really glad with how the game defended well, we got first contacts, second contacts, and that is how we need to move forward.
[The schedule] has been difficult, but no matter where you are, the Championship or the Champions League, this is the schedule that is put upon the modern footballer. You have to deal with it, whether the manager chooses the same team week in, week out, or each game day, or chooses to rotate, whether the players are starting or on the bench you have to be able to keep your body in tip top shape, and perform as much as you can.
From the start of the season, from when I joined, the play-offs was always an aim for us. It never changes until it is unrealistic, and it still is realistic at this point. We are not naive to the fact that we have to put some good results together, the run of form we have had the last month or so has not been good enough, we need to pick up some steam to now pick up the wins to allow us to put us back in the mix, we want to be in the mix, and create a gap from the teams below us, so like I said a clean sheet and three points always helps, and now we can look forward to the next game.
We were aware how they played in the reverse fixture, we played really well, we wanted to get an early goal to settle the nerves and dominate the game the way we did at home but unfortunately we weren’t able to do that, it was a fight and a scrap for a long time, the pitch, the environment, the home fans were in their favour so it was a harder fixture than the one we played at home.
