Amber Stobbs made her debut for Watford as the Hornets suffered a 2-1 opening day defeat at the hands of Durham.
It was a valiant display by Watford who could have come away from Maiden Castle with at least one point if it wasn’t for some top Durham defending.
Stobbs operated in a more advanced role during the second half which saw her control the game a lot more and get Watford on the front foot, however, that was not enough to stop the Hornets from falling to their first defeat.
The midfielder admitted that ‘it’s disappointing to not take anything from the game’ as they put the home side under enormous pressure in the second half.
‘Looking at the bigger picture’
Watford did themselves no harm as they started the season strong despite a defeat at Durham, who will likely be challenging at the top of the Championship and Amber Stobbs spoke about their opening day defeat.
“Tough game but I’m really impressed with our side I thought we put in a good performance, especially [in the] second half. In the second half, I think we put them on the back foot and had the better of it.
“I said to the girls, we’re a newly promoted side so to come up and go away to Durham who are a good side, they’ve finished in the top three the last few years and in the second half, I genuinely think we had the better of them.”
After failing to get out of their own half during the opening 45 minutes, the whole team held themselves accountable in the dressing room and it showed as they pinned the Wildcats back in the second half, Stobbs added.
“I think at half time, we just went in and knew as girls, the standard wasn’t good enough so we had to pick it up and we took accountability on the pitch. Every individual knew that we weren’t at our standard.
Stobbs not happy to come away with a point
“Credit to the team for turning around the performance as 2-0 at half time we knew it could go either way and we knew the next 10-15 minutes were important.”
It seems that Watford are certainly aiming higher than just being another number in the Championship despite being a newly promoted side as Stobbs explained.
“Yeah definitely because like I said, we put them on the back foot and it’s disappointing to not take anything from the game.
“Looking at the bigger picture, if you look at that, coming up to Durham, they’re a horrible team to play against and it’s a long weekend away.
“We had our standards, we came here for points and we won’t shy away from it. We go home disappointed to not get one or even three but we’ll look at the performance and carry on from it.”
If Watford can keep up their levels of performance from the second half they will cause a lot of teams problems this season with the quality they have in their side.
