Roy Hodgson is hoping to steer Watford to Premier League safety this term
(Picture: AFP via Getty Images)Roy Hodgson believes Watford are not yet at the “must-win” stage of their relegation fight and has urged fans to keep faith after recalling his great escape with Fulham.
Hodgson managed to avoid the drop with the Cottagers in 2008 when his side looked set to be relegated from the Premier League.
Fulham somehow managed to stay up by winning four of their last five games, a crucial run which included victory at Manchester City.
Watford are currently 19th and three points adrift of safety ahead of Thursday’s trip to Wolves, but Hodgson is keeping faith.
“Well I mean, what is a must-win? That’s the bottom line. You never know,” he said.
“The simple answer to the question is when there is not enough games and points left for you to get yourself out of the relegation zone. That’s the simple answer.
“We certainly aren’t there yet and I think it is important to keep faith.
“I must say remembering back to those Fulham days, where things looked really, really bleak with us with four games to go, I thought the crowd and the club were very, very good in what they call keeping the faith.
“To be honest, I don’t know what faith we had given them but they decided whatever it was they were going to keep it. And, as a result, their faith I suppose and their help did pull us through.”
Watford could be boosted by the return of Josh King and William Troost-Ekong, who both have hamstring issues, for Thursday’s game at Molineux.
“He (King) hasn’t trained yet. He is going to join us in training this afternoon, as is William Troost-Ekong, but of course we haven’t had a chance over the last week or so to really assess them,” said Hodgson.
“So it’ll be very close for both of those if they are going to take part in the game, but it does depend totally on how they come through training this afternoon.”
