Rodgers proud of Watford team

Brendan Rodgers was a happy man after defeat to Chelsea, despite losing by three goals to one against his former club.

Speaking after the defeat a philosophical Rodgers said: “I am very, very proud.

“I am very proud of the Club. It has been a difficult season and I think tonight the supporters were fantastic. They gave us great energy and then the players give the crowd great energy.

“I thought we were outstanding in relation to the fact we were playing a world class squad.

“After we got going after 10 to 15 minutes I thought it was a real good game right up to the very end.

“It could have been two each but instead that wee bit of quality came through and Nicolas gets his third goal.”

For Rodgers the game almost marked a watershed moment as his players looked at home against top class opposition before the encounter became a strung-out end-to-end goal chase.

“The players are improving all the time,” he said. “The last four games, including tonight, have been very, very good.

“You are playing against world class players and you know you are going to have less of the ball than what they will have.

“You have to have a good concentration level and tactical discipline and we had that.

“I think the idea was, we needed to know and understand that at times they would up their football – there is going to be constant movement and rotation of players.

“We needed to ensure we stayed in our zones, we pressed in the right areas and after the first 15 minutes, when we got that right, then tactically our game was very, very good. Concentration levels were high and our two centre halves were very, very good.

“With 20 minutes to go I am thinking ‘here we go’, but then I should have known better because I have worked with these guys [Chelsea] and they are top players.

Having gone a goal up in the 69th minute the hope was that the Hornets could hold out through to the 90-minute mark, sadly the lead lasted only five of those remaining 21 minutes, although much to the infuriation of Rodgers and his coaching team.

“I’m a wee bit disappointed – and I am never normally one with referees as they have a difficult job – but, we were trying to make a substitution and Mike Dean’s earpiece wasn’t working, so we couldn’t get our substitute on,” said an irked Watford boss.

“So John-Joe was stood on the side to try and get on, we were trying to get him on and when we did it was too late, they scored their first goal.

“We couldn’t get the message to the referee. That was the only disappointment apart from the result.”

Lloyd Doyley took the man-of-the-match award as the longest serving ‘Orn put on a show of thorough heart in front of the Watford faithful, but Rodgers was at pains to pick out a team display rather than any show from any one individual.

“We had an 18-year-old, Hoyte, at right-back who was excellent, Lloyd Doyley at left-back was great.

“We had got an 18-year-old, Ross Jenkins, in the centre of midfield, who is going to be an outstanding player. He had a great experience tonight against probably the best ghosting midfield player in the world in Frank Lampard.

“My front players were good. McAnuff, it would have capped his night really if he’d have got that goal right at the death to make it two-each, because he was very good as well.

“Priskin coming on was excellent. I am proud of the whole group, the whole team. I am very much about players playing with their brain. It’s all about heart in this country but you need to be able to play football with your brain.

“That should now push us on for the last 16 matches.” 

Goalkeeper Scott Loach was rather more disappointed after the game.

“It was a brilliant experience, but it was devastating because they showed their class at the end” said the Nottingham-born number one.

“That’s where I want to be [playing against top teams] and that’s where everyone in the changing room wants to be” added the ‘keeper. 

“I didn’t think we were that far from it to be honest, for 75 minutes I wouldn’t say we were the better team but we were definitely on a par.

“It’s just a few things we need to put together and it won’t be long until we’re knocking on the Premiership door again.”

The goalkeeper felt that the arrival of super-sub and goalscorer Tamas Priskin surprised the former Premiership champions to a certain degree.

He commented: “Tamas isn’t just an impact player, he showed why he’s an international for his country today.

“It was brilliant to inject his pace in there and I don’t think Chelsea really expected it to be honest, Grzeg’s a big target man and I think Chelsea expected the same from Tamas but he got in behind and he proved how clinical he can be and put it away.”

Now the ‘Orns go from FA Cup magic back to the demands of league football and another big test against an ever-improving Swansea City.

Loach added: “We treat every game the same, whether we’ve got Chelsea or Swansea, whoever we’ve got we put in the right approach and at the minute every game is a big match for us.

“What we’ve been doing is working very, very hard and the lads have showed it on the pitch and we’re very close to being back up there again.

“We showed against a top Premiership team tonight for 75 minutes what we can do, if we can go into every game with that performance and attitude then there’s no reason why we can’t put two or three wins together.

“It’s very close this league but we’ve definitely got the ability to be higher up.”