Fighting talk

Watford striker Darius Henderson believes it will be three years before his reaches his peak as a centre-forward.

After a barren spell of six months without a goal this season, Henderson has now scored in his last two Barclays Premiership games - with the strike in Tuesday's 1-1 draw with Wigan his first in open play this term.

The 25-year-old is delighted finally to be finding some form in the top flight, but admitted he had still some way to go before arriving at his maximum level.

'I am only 25, and, as a target man, they say it is not until you are 28 that you begin to reach your prime,' Henderson said.

'I just want to improve and give my all for the team I am playing for.

'I believe the experience [of going so long without a goal] has made me a stronger person.

'I believe I was out of order for being disappointed. I shouldn't need to wait for a goal to lift my performances.

'But I have scored the goals, and now, hopefully, I can score some more.

'Our fitness levels have to be a decisive factor, and we need to have quality. I think we are improving.

'I am getting the chances now, and I am slightly disappointed not to have put more of them away against Wigan.

'Hopefully, I can do so in the next game (at home to Everton on Saturday).

'We must approach the match in the right manner. We are in a relegation battle, and we have to fight now.

'We must approach every game to win from now on, because, if we don't, we will find ourselves going down.

'We must take the positives out of the Wigan game. We avoided defeat against a good team who are also fighting for their lives.

'All credit to them. They went down to 10 men, but still put us under a lot of pressure.'

Paul Jewell said, 'We showed a lot of desire, it's a very difficult place to come, and we stood up to them and matched them.

'Even before we scored we had a couple of opportunities, and we didn't want half time to come because we were on top of the game. Their goalkeeper was carrying an injury which hindered them a lot.

'We kept on knocking on the door and we looked like the team that was going to score, and we had the better opportunities, but they had more of the pressure.'

Jewell admitted he had a bad view of Hall's red card and declined to make any issue out of it saying, 'I didn't have a great view from where I was, and I've been in enough trouble with referees recently, but I can't really comment from where I saw it.'

The boss continued, 'I thought our players were tremendous and I though a draw was at least what we deserved.

'A point is still progress in our attempt to make sure we stay in this division. It puts us six points clear of Charlton and West Ham and seven points clear of Watford and we have a better goal difference which could prove vital.

'Tonight we go home happy, but we also know there is a third of the season still to go.'

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