Hughes targets Stoke’s last-day push for Europe
MARK HUGHES is dreaming of a final-day fight for European football after a dominant win at Watford sent Stoke into the Premier League’s top seven.
Jonathan Walters was the architect who brought Hughes’ side back to winning ways with a goal and an assist for Joselu at Vicarage Road.
And Hughes is convinced his tightly-knit squad can now put themselves in the running for a qualifying spot that might well be decided when West Ham visit Stoke on the last day.
It is a realistic dream. Stoke were outstanding in this well-deserved 2-1 victory and even opposition boss Quique Sanchez Flores admitted he was powerless to stop their fabulous front four.
Walters and Joselu scored the goals and were well aided by Marko Arnautovic and Ibrahim Afellay in an attack that will give any team a run for their money.
‘We’re there or thereabouts,’ said Hughes. ‘We’re in the mix. At this stage with seven games to go we’re still talking about Europe — that’s something we’ve never done before so that’s something we’re going to try to attain.
‘It’s not going to be easy. There’s some good teams around us that will have a say in that but we’re playing the teams in and around us. We play West Ham on the last day of the season so maybe that game will decide whether we do it or not.’
There is certainly something of a defiant nature to Stoke and it was embodied by Walters here.
The Irishman has been out of Hughes’ side but returned full of steam to take Watford apart and opened the scoring after 18 minutes. Walters had already enjoyed plenty of room down the right flank, but it was his subtle switch away from there that opened the avenue for Stoke to take the lead.
The 32-year-old moved inside to release Phil Bardsley, out wide and in space, with Nathan Ake exposed.
Giannelli Imbula found right-back Bardsley with a pass that allowed him to spin a cross away from the Watford defenders and into the path of Walters — arriving at the back post — to batter home.
Flores tried to regroup at the half-time break but six minutes into the second half it was 2-0.
Heurelho Gomes’ mistake gave Walters the platform to punish Watford again — a throwback to the goalkeeper’s more error-prone days.
The Brazilian shanked a clearance straight to Walters just inside the Watford half, allowing him to cushion a fantastic ball through to Joselu, who only needed to lift his shot over Gomes’ head to double the lead.
Troy Deeney dragged one back with a late header but, in truth, Watford were second-best by quite some way and did not look much like equalising.
‘They dominated everything for an hour,’ said Flores. ‘They played really, really, well. It was impossible to stop for us.
‘We forgot the plan. We were not playing like a team in the first half, we were not in the match really.’