LONDON, CMC – Teenaged Watford defender Ryan Andrews said his first entire season playing in the English League Championship has been valuable, even though he has not always gotten the chance to play in a starting role.
The 19-year-old came off the bench against Sunderland on Saturday at Vicarage Road to score his third goal of the season in the 64th minute. This marked his 50th appearance in a Watford shirt in the perfect way.
The goal handed the Hornets, as Watford are known, a 1-0 win, allowing Tom Cleverley to celebrate his appointment as permanent team manager with the club’s first home win since November 28.
It was only Watford’s second win in nine matches under Cleverley, who was placed in charge on an interim basis after Valerien Ismael was sacked in March. It ended a run of 12 winless matches, including five draws.
Andrews is the son of former Watford striker Wayne Andrew and is of Barbadian descent through his father.
He said though he did not start the match on Saturday, he knew when he came on the field that he needed to show what he could do.
A dull end-of-season affair between the two mid-table sides was settled by a moment of quality midway through the second half when Koné played a perfect pass behind the Sunderland defense, and Andrews coolly slotted past keeper Anthony Patterson.
“Tom gave me the chance at half-time to come on,” he said. “It’s a fantastic feeling, especially on my 50th appearance, and doing it at home is even better.
“I saw Ismaël Koné running with the ball and a big gap between the defenders. If I could run diagonally into the space, he would play me the ball, and I knew I just had to get my head over the ball and shoot across the goal.”
He added, “Every full-back enjoys getting forward, as there are goals to be scored and chances to be created. You also have to do the dirty work defending.
“We knew that as it was our last home game, we had to show the fans what they wanted to see. No one wants to be at the last home game of the season and lose, so it’s a massive win for us because we gave the fans what they wanted to see in the last home match.”
Andrews made his first senior appearance for Watford last year and finished the season with six consecutive starts in the Championship as a full-back ahead of recognized international players. Still, he has fallen the pecking order and has been philosophical about his approach to regaining a starting spot.
“Everyone wants to be playing every game and every minute of the season,” he said. “This has been an excellent first entire season for me. I have played a lot of games and developed over time.
“There are still a lot of things I can improve. It is frustrating to be on the bench, but when you come on, you must show your abilities.”
He said, “I’m proud of myself, as well. There have been a lot of moments during the season where I may not have had the confidence that I wanted every game, but I still got the game time I wanted.”
“I just went game by game and tried to do my best. As a player, when you have those down moments, you need to get past them and try to overcome them.”
The result on Saturday enabled Watford to move up a place in the 24-team table to 14th on 56 points with one match remaining in the season.
Andrews said the focus for him and the rest of the team is to seek improvement and return more robust next season.
“We all want to get promoted (to the English Premier League) next season,” he said. “It’s not as easy as just saying it, but if we stay as a team and work hard, it can be achieved.”
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