GIVE TEAMS ONE HELL OF A WELCOME

NIGEL PEARSON wants Watford to rediscover their DNA – by making Vicarage Road a horrible place to visit once again.

The Hornets have not won any of their eight home games this season and that shocking form is in stark contrast to previous campaigns when they were a notoriously tough nut to crack on their own patch.

Nobody knows that better than their new boss Pearson. He admits a trip to Vicarage Road was never something he relished while in charge of West Brom and Leicester. And he is determined that anyone heading to leafy Hertfordshire between now and next May will find it anything but a breeze to waltz off with the points – starting with Manchester United this afternoon.

Pearson, whose first game at the Watford helm ended in a gutsy 2-0 defeat at Liverpool, said:

“It’s important that we create our own identity.

“When you look at what this football ground represents and the atmosphere that you would expect as a visitor, I don’t think we can underplay that.

“Recreating something that’s gone before is never easy. But the ethos of what we are about as a club is to create an atmosphere that other clubs don’t enjoy.

“I only reflect on my experiences coming here as a player, coach and manager. You expected that difficult atmosphere. This current group of players have experienced that because last year and the year before, this was a difficult place for opponents to come.

“It’s important we try to create an atmosphere – I’m not talking about the fans, I’m talking about the players. And I’m talking about an atmosphere of, ‘This is us – now deal with us!”

With four home points from a possible 24, it is glaringly obvious why Watford have been rooted to the bottom of the Premier League table since August. But, having witnessed a decent display at Anfield last week, Pearson (above) is adamant Troy Deeney and Co are committed to digging the club out of the mire.

Factors

He went on: “It’s always easy to point fingers at the modern players and suggest that they don’t care. I don’t think that’s the case here at all.

“There may have been a drift and a number of contributory factors.

“But something that has struck me in my short time here is the application of the players, which is really, really good. I’ve had lots of individual conversations to gauge where players are – and there have been lots of positives.

“What’s important is we galvanise this group. That way, when things aren’t going so well on the field, the group is strong enough to handle what is thrown at them. That shone through last week against Liverpool at Anfield but it needs to be like that every time we play.

“I’m not going to spend a lot of time looking too much into the past problems because now it’s about living in the present.”