Pleased to be back in action following a spell on the sidelines through injury, Francisco Sierralta has his sights set on being a key player in Watford’s climb up the Sky Bet Championship table following a clean sheet and 1-0 win over Wigan Athletic in his 50th appearance for the club.
Sierralta was called into action on several occasions in the air against a combative Latics side at the DW Stadium, and alongside centre-back partner William Troost-Ekong was able to keep last season’s League One top goalscorer Will Keane quiet throughout.
Reaching half a century of appearances having joined at the start of the 2020/21 Championship promotion campaign, the Chilean hopes back-to-back victories can be the start of a similar run of form to in his debut season at the club.
“It’s a huge win,” Sierralta began. “Sometimes they arrive at the end of the game, in the last minute. Sometimes you need to win these games even if you don’t play too well. That’s something we need to work on to find consistency, but we need to keep improving. We can’t enjoy that win that much though because we’re already thinking about the Cardiff game on Wednesday.
“I felt good, it was my 50th game for Watford, and it was perfect. I was coming back from injury so I made the most out of the game.
“In a game like this you have to go beyond your 100 per cent and stay focused, because the key is not conceding a goal. We always know that we’ll create chances to score a goal, so if we stay focused and not concede we know we can win the game.”
Digging deep to claim another clean sheet, Sierralta noted the strength in depth in his position with Kortney Hause returning to the bench, Craig Cathcart and William Troost-Ekong performing last week and Christian Kabasele nearing a comeback from injury.
“It’s very good because we have several centre-backs, everyone has quality and everyone has done well covering each other when the others were out,” the 25-year-old continued. “We need now to fight the battle for the Head Coach and the fans. I hope we’ll be a little luckier with injuries now and have everyone available for the club.”
From a personal perspective, Sierralta is aware of the Championship’s testing schedule and physical opposition in the games to come.
Sierralta added: “I’m happy to be back and I hope to be able to play the next four games. I hope we play well but the reality is that we’re going to need to fight because every game is a battle in the Championship. Many teams play direct football, many teams play straight from the defence to attack so we need to be ready.”
