Deeney ´not bothered´ after ending drought from open play

Watford captain Troy Deeney cared little about ending his dreadful scoring record from open play after firing his side to a 1-0 win over Everton.

Deeney rifled in the only goal of a disappointing contest at Vicarage Road, finding the top corner with 11 minutes remaining to move Watford six points clear of the Premier League relegation zone.

For the 29-year-old it was his first goal in 27 Premier League games but the striker, who conceded the game was severely lacking in quality, showed little regard for that statistic.

Speaking to BT Sport, he said: “I’m not remotely bothered. 

“Stats are for everyone else. It’s about performances for the team. It doesn’t matter if I don’t score as long as I’m contributing.

“It was a game where two teams were desperate not to lose, with the way the table is. We don’t want to lose a home game and Everton want to keep a gap from the bottom.

“I have to say our fans were fantastic. It was a dire game, but they stuck with us and deserve it.

“This win only matters if you follow it up. We’ve got West Brom next week and there’s no point winning one and losing three or four. There are 10 matches left, 30 points up for grabs, so [we] need more wins.”

With the game largely starved of excitement, Deeney believes many viewers may have switched to the Six Nations clash between Scotland and England.

 | Pick that one out!#watfordfc pic.twitter.com/sy8BTBKlSI

— Watford FC (@WatfordFC) February 24, 2018

“No one wanted to be the first to make a mistake. Not great viewing. I hear the rugby was on so they might have watched that instead,” he added.

Meanwhile, Everton boss Sam Allardyce, whose side have won just one of their last 22 Premier League away games and are only a point and a place above Watford, bemoaned their lack of cutting edge.

“They had somebody who can finish and we didn’t,” Allardyce told BT Sport. “We ended up giving a goal away we should have avoided. It was a really good finish from Deeney though.

“In our final third we couldn’t find anything. I was pleased with the overall performance, but in the final third we could have done a lot more.

“When you play away from home in these games they can be scrappy. At this time of year teams look over their shoulders to see where they are.

“Our final third play was the big disappointment and goals overall have been our problem this season.

“Our best chance fell to Michael Keane who had a header from three yards out – I don’t know how that went wide of the post.”