SHANE WARNED

Bachmann gives goal hero the Ferg degree

1

1

HECTOR NUNNS

DANIEL BACHMANN accused Rotherham scorer Shane Ferguson of trying to get him sent off after Watford dropped points in the promotion race.

BY

20

The flashpoint occurred at the end of a first half that saw Northern Irish winger Ferguson put relegationthreatened Millers ahead.

Watford keeper Bachmann was infuriated by what he saw as timewasting by Rotherham new boy Tariqe Fosu and attempted to lift him off the floor.

But Ferguson waded in and, after some pushing, both were booked by referee David Webb. The goalkeeper led with his head but did not appear to make any further movement. And Bachmann, who ultimately earned his team a draw with a fine late save from Fosu, said: “I tried to help Fosu up, just trying to speed the game up.

“I understand the situation Rotherham are in, they’re going to try to slow the game down. But they did it from the 30th second of the game.

“And me doing that just played into their hands. Fosu was holding his leg, then ended up holding his face. He didn’t seem to know why he was on the ground.

“I was squaring off with Shane Ferguson and I put my head towards him. He’s quite a bit smaller than me so he jumped up to me and ended up going on the floor pretending that I’d head-butted him. “Ferguson stood there laughing his head off. He knew what he did – he was expecting me to get sent off, but arguably he should have gone. He tried to play the referee.”

Slaven Bilic’s men salvaged a point with a goal from full debutant Joao Ferreira (below) but Watford, with a brutal run of upcoming fixtures, are now 13 points behind second-placed Sheffield United, and 18 adrift of leaders Burnley. Austrian Bachmann added: “We have to try to win all 18 games we have left. If we win every game we can get 98 points and we’re going up. With 92 or 93 you’re likely in the top two. We were in a similar situation the last time we were promoted – nine points behind Brentford at the end of January and still went up.

“It’s not over. Burnley will be tough to catch. But I’m comparing Sheffield United to Brentford. Nobody would have said at the end of January that they wouldn’t go up directly but they didn’t.”

Rotherham again punched above their weight and Ferguson (left) said: “In the dressing room we were disappointed because we could have come away with more. The new lads coming in have been brilliant. Having new faces in the building has really lifted everyone.”