Zola: ‘Not healthy for the manager’s heart!’

Gianfranco Zola was keen, as ever, to accentuate the positives after Watford were pegged back late on by Bristol City.

The Hornets peppered Tom Heaton’s goal, firing in 22 shots, 13 of which hit the target.

However, it took until the second-half for Watford to take the lead when James Wilson put through his own-goal under pressure from the recently-released Troy Deeney.

Marvin Elliott levelled just four minutes later before Matej Vydra put the Golden Boys back in the lead with a sublime piece of control and an equally impressive finish.

With just eight minutes left on the clock, Steven Davies rescued a point for the Robins in a game where they had very much been second best.

Speaking afterwords to The Watford Observer, Zola admitted his frustration at throwing away a valuable two points:

“If I only focussed on that [losing a lead twice] then yes it is very frustrating. But there were also a lot of good, positive things I can take from this game; we created a lot and scored two goals.’

Zola continued:

“Towards the end it was a little bit shaky and it was not very healthy for the manager`s heart but a lot of that was down to the fact that many of the players are coming back from injuries and there are players who are not playing well.’

The boss reserved special praise for Deeney, released from prison less than a fortnight ago and almost immediately plunged back into first-team action after just one development XI run-out.

“I am glad Deeney is back. He is an important player and he is just the right player for this team.

“Today he showed very good attributes and he will get better and better. We are very happy to have him and we will improve a lot.”

Watford travel to the Galpharm Stadium next Saturday to face newly-promoted opposition in Huddersfield Town.