Rob Edwards has told Watford to catch the party mood “every day of the week” instead of sinking to the occasion on a big centenary at Vicarage Road.
Exactly 100 years ago, the Hornets settled into their current home with a 0-0 draw against Millwall wearing black-and-white stripes. They will take on Middlesbrough in the same commemorative kit on Tuesday night with the club's favourite son, record appearance-maker and goalscorer Luther Blissett centre stage leading the half-time celebrations.
But Watford have a wretched record of serving up dross at landmark games, losing at home to Cardiff on the day Golden Boys godfather Graham Taylor christened his eponymous stand eight years ago and drawing 0-0 with Boro two days after his sudden death in 2017. Head coach Edwards, whose unbeaten start has been punctured by two home defeats in five days, has demanded that his team catches the wave – every game.
He said: “I want my players to rise to the occasion every day of the week, whether it's a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, whatever, and whether we've been at Vicarage Road for five minutes or 100 years. I'm looking for the right performance and result every time. The special occasion is great and it's nice to be involved, but it doesn't make the actual game mean any more.
“For us, the next game should always matter the most, but we would love to mark the occasion with a good performance and a win. Middlesbrough are a very good team who probably haven't picked up the number of points they would have liked so far and it's certainly not going to be a walk in the park.”
Edwards will be relieved when the the transfer window shuts on Thursday night after losing £20m Emmanuel Dennis to Nottingham Forest and weeks of intense speculation about £30m-rated pair Joao Pedro and Ismaila Sarr. He said: “We can perform better, we're not anywhere near where I want us to be and I've not been able to put out the team I want to put out.
“It may be a few weeks before I reach that stage, but getting Thursday's deadline out of the way will help, so we know where we're at with the squad. The interest in Joao is well documented, but he's got a lot of love for this club – and we've got a lot of love for him as well.
“Everyone here would love for him still to be a Watford player on Friday, and I'm definitely among those looking forward to the window closing, but we'll see. The last eight weeks has felt like a long year – the window has been eventful and we've probably had more speculation about our players than any Championship in any transfer window.”
