PREMIER LEAGUE NO TRICKS

Relegation fight holds no fear for Hornets boss Pearson after his close encounter on holiday with a pack of wild dogs

NIGEL PEARSON will never be afraid of a dog-eat-dog relegation scrap after his close encounter with Dracula’s hounds.

Watford’s head coach will need all his survival instincts in the Hornets’ scramble for the life raft at Brighton today after two damaging last-gasp defeats plunged them back into the bottom three.

But Pearson won’t be scared by a flock of Seagulls after he was cornered by a pack of wild dogs on a walking holiday in Transylvania, Count Dracula’s notorious stronghold of blood transfusion.

When the story was recycled by Peter Crouch on his podcast, Pearson was portrayed as a lonely hiker who fought off a pack of wolves with his bare hands in the remote Carpathian mountains.

He put the record straight on Sky Sports’ Goals On Sunday programme. And the only Wolves he has seen off lately lost 2-1 against Watford’s 10 men at Vicarage Road on New Year’s Day.

But Pearson admits he was traumatised by his walking holiday drama – and he only survived because of his innate refusal to become a dogs’ dinner. Whatever awaits him at the Amex bears little comparison.

He said: “Experiences like that are real life – feeling very, very threatened – and this is a different type of challenge. It’s not as if my life’s in danger... hopefully. Time will tell.

“The problem is that when you share stories, they grow arms and legs – and it adds to the myth around people.

“A pack of wolves? Not true – they were dogs. Five or six of them. They are the dogs shepherds keep with their flocks in high pastures to protect them from bears or wolves.

“It was a very, very frightening experience and it took me a long time to get over it. And I still get spooked, even now, when I hear a dog barking.”

Watford were making an absolute dog’s breakfast of their season when ex-leicester boss Pearson, 56, walked through the door two months ago.

Briefly, their resurgence lifted them out of the drop zone last month, but £35million record-signing Ismaila Sarr’s hamstring injury, and late sucker punches against Aston Villa and Everton, have stalled the Pearson revival. If Watford are going to reach dry land – and they were seven points adrift when Pearson arrived – they will need skipper Troy Deeney to keep delivering goals and leadership.

Only Sergio Aguero and Mo Salah, with seven each, have scored more than Deeney’s five Premier League goals since Pearson took charge.

And the Hornets talisman’s capacity for nuisance value among opposition defenders means he will be a key component of Watford’s survival bid.

Pearson (with Deeney, below) said: “It’s interesting when people talk about Troy just in terms of goalscoring because, speaking to Everton’s staff last weekend, they were very complimentary about how irritating he was to play against – and it was the same story against Spurs.

“When you have strikers who are out-and-out goalscorers, that’s one thing. But what you have to remember with somebody like Troy is that he is a very difficult customer to mark. “He is somebody who scores goals, and his record is very good but, on top of that, he is game-effective.

“But the bottom line is that we need to find goals throughout the squad and not to put too much onus on one or two individuals.

“Others need to contribute in that department as well.” statue in the city centre. He said: “Because Liverpool is The Beatles’ city, I was really interested in the city and I

Peter Crouch (left) spoke on his podcast about Pearson’s brush with a pack of dogs