William Troost-Ekong is delighted to be playing for Sky Bet Championship club Watford, reports Completesports.com.
The defender raced back from Nigeria after helping his country qualify for the African Cup of Nations to play another commanding role in his club side’s charge towards the Premier League with a result against Sheffield Wednesday he described as “massive.
“It was a lot to travel and then play again so it’s a massive result for us,”Troost-Ekong told the club website after the win that took the second-place Hornets nine points clear of third place.
“These kind of games are the ones that hopefully get you promoted. They are not as beautiful as a 6-0 at home and we had our luck with the goal, but you earn your luck and we worked hard for that. We did well to control the game. Sheffield Wednesday had the ball a lot and played good football, but they weren’t that dangerous apart from one big chance.”
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Teams need to take their limited chances against this Hornets back-four that has now kept 19 clean sheets, just three short of the club record 22 the title-winning side of 1968/69 achieved.
Troost-Ekong has been not only an influential figure in this parsimonious defence, but also one off the field, too. He led the forthright discussions after the home defeat to Queens Park Rangers and the draw at Coventry, and the team haven’t looked back since, winning 10 of the next 11 games.
“That was the key week for our season,” said the summer signing from Udinese.
“I felt that it wasn’t good enough, from how we played to the general feeling and the attitude of the team. We were negative and everyone was complaining. We looked like 11 islands instead of a team. We have the quality, but we were not pulling in the same direction. I was driving home from the stadium and I called some of the boys and asked them what they thought.
“Everyone had the same idea and we got in a room and had it out. Everyone was honest and said what they thought. If you can’t be honest with each other and not sugar coat stuff, then you aren’t going to make changes. After that, the attitude changed in the team. The senior boys agreed with what I said and we changed, to play as a team and to leave it all out there. I was happy everyone agreed and we got it moving from there.”
