Watford vs Sheffield United
EFL Championship
Vicarage Road
Watford vs Sheffield United: Match report
Full time score: Watford 1-0 Sheffield United
Goal: Joao Pedro 56’.
Lineups
Watford: Bachmann, Cathcart, Kabasele, Sierralta, Cleverley, Kayembe, Kamara, Sema, Joao Pedro (Gosling 87), Dennis, Sarr (Manaj 81).
Unused: Hamer, Ngakia, Ekong, Asprilla, Bayo.
Sheffield United: Foderingham, Baldock, Stevens (Lowe 55), Fleck, Berge, Egan, Norwood (Osborn 68), Clark (Khadra 68), Ndiaye (Sharp 78), Norrington-Davies, Jebbison (Brewster 68).
Unused: Amissah, Gordon.
Managers’ reaction
Watford’s Rob Edwards: “It feels great. Emotions are high and I’m just really pleased with the players. I wanted to see intensity tonight, I wanted to see a commitment and togetherness. That’s what we asked for and I think we saw that as well.
“If I’m being critical, when we had the momentum in the second half. But I think we showed a lot of resilience to see the game out then. Overall, I’m very, very pleased.”
Sheffield United’s Paul Heckingbottom: “The boys stuck at it manfully, but a big part of our game is outside centre-backs and we’ve got three missing. The players on the pitch adapted well. There was nothing in the game first half. We knew their threats would come on the counter, which they did, whereas we wanted to control the game with the ball, which we did in spells.
“Probably the only criticism is that we were a little bit shot-shy and reluctant to put the ball in the box and all of our subs were attacking players. We lost shape and balance, if you like, putting all the attacking players on the pitch. It has been a difficult couple of days, but we would never let that be an excuse – we came here to win.”
