By OkayGoal
Watford head coach Renée Hector says that her side are ready to take on Bristol City at Vicarage Road on Sunday.
The Golden Girls have taken a point from each of their two Barclays WSL2 games so far. They come up against one of the pre-season promotion favourites this weekend.
Bristol City have suffered back-to-back defeats but The Robins could click sooner rather than later. Regardless of the task that awaits her side, Hector believes that Watford are more than capable of competing strongly.
“There’s no doubt about it that the mindset will be that this could be the game where they start their momentum,” Hector said when speaking in the pre-match press conference. “They’re obviously favourites to win the game and they’re going to be looking at it to try and kick-start their season.
“What I’ve seen during pre-season is that I think people underestimate us a little bit, if I’m being honest. I’ve seen a lot in terms of us being tipped to be towards the bottom of the league, but I think we’re a force to be reckoned with. I know that we can score against any team. We needed to massively work on how we defend our box and we’ve done that.
“We’re going to be ready for them to come at us for sure, but hopefully, that leaves us some space to go and do what we’re good at.”
Commenting on her side’s performances so far, Hector said that Watford can start converting draws into wins if they are a bit more clinical and improve their game management.
She said “Sunday [against Nottingham Forest], was a good start in terms of the goals we scored of very, very high quality which is really important because we know that we’re probably not going to get as many chances as we did in Tier 3. It’s really important that ruthlessness is there and that we’re clinical and we were that on Sunday.
“It was really pleasing to see after the game against Burnley where I felt like we should have won and we weren’t quite clinical enough. I think it’s just about managing the temperature of the game. It was about a minute-and-a-half until half-time and we conceded that goal. Maybe if we had a bit better decision-making then that doesn’t happen and all of a sudden, it’s a very different game in the second half.
“I think it was a good lesson for us, a good lesson for the players, a good lesson for our staff in terms of what we might need in different moments in games, depending on the temperature. There are going to be times where we need to take on a bit of pressure and there are going to be times where we’re able to impose ourselves and get some more control. It’s about the players on the pitch being able to orchestrate that, communicate with each other and just manage the game a little bit better.”
Former Bristol City forward Tianna Teisar signed for Watford over the summer and Hector has been impressed with the player’s attitude since arriving in Hertfordshire.
She said “TT is a player who has a good mindset. She’s such a professional, she wants to learn, she wants to get better. She’s self-critical, but she’s brave when I put her on the pitch in terms of her ability to dribble and try and create chances.
“There are a lot of girls that are banging on my door [wanting to play], but that’s a really good problem to have because I think the squad is so competitive this year. I genuinely believe that most players have got a case to start the game to be honest, depending on the attributes we need.
“For sure, Tianna’s somebody that’s very much in the front of my thoughts. Hopefully, on Sunday, she can impact the game, go and get us a goal. That would be lovely and I’m sure she’d enjoy that too.”
Watford’s Barclays WSL2 fixture against Bristol City kicks-off at 2pm on Sunday afternoon. Tickets are on general sale and can be purchased by clicking here.
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