Sights are set on Terriers says Mariappa

DEFENDER Adrian Mariappa is backing Watford to get back on track when they take on Huddersfield Town at Vicarage Road tomorrow.

The Hornets were stung on Tuesday night when they were beaten 2-1 at Crystal Palace after controlling long periods of the contest.

Daryl Janmaat’s early goal settled any nerves the Watford may have had at Selhurst Park and the Dutchman’s headed goal just three minutes in gave boss Marco Silva’s men the perfect start.

However, a second yellow card for midfielder Tom Cleverley three minutes from time proved to be the turning point, as the home side hit back with Bakary Sako’s equaliser giving Palace the momentum to take all three points – which substitute James McArthur sealed two minutes into injury-time.

“We need to just stick together as a group and believe in what we’re doing,” said the London-born 31-year-old.

“We have to crack on for the next game, we’ve got a big game this Saturday at home and we need to get a positive result.

“The boys have been terrific this season, we’ve scored more than one goal on the road in every game before Palace, but we’re not always going to score two or three away from home.

“It’s down to us as a team, we always attack as a team and defend as a team, we will look at it and see where we can improve.”

Mariappa was left disappointed following the late defeat away to Palace, admitting the performance in the latter stages of the match wasn’t up to scratch.

“Obviously we’re gutted to come away with no points,” said Mariappa.

“I thought we were in control of the game for pretty much most of it and then we conceded two late goals.

“It’s something we need to look at and address because we know it’s not good enough.

“We’ve seen games out this season, but we’ll look at the goals individually. It’s not great on our part, but like I said we will look at it and aim to do better going forward.”

Three at the back was the formation chosen by Silva – a positive decision, with Palace limited to just four shots on target, three of which came during the equalising goal.

“We felt in control of the game,” added Mariappa.

“They’ve got a lot of good attacking players and for most of the game they were kept very quiet.

“I thought we looked in control and created some other good chances as well, so to come away with nothing is really disappointing.

“At the end of the day we had the one-nil lead and we should have come away with a clean sheet.”