The performance of William Troost Ekong and his central defence partner Edo Kayembe has drawn harsh words from coach of Watford Joe Edwards after his team crashed out of the Carabao Cup following a 2-0 loss to League One side MK Dons.
Edwards watched his side deservedly beaten by a Dons team who fielded five 19-year-olds in their starting XI and currently sit 22nd in League One. As expected he didn’t hide his disappointment over the result of the game. He blamed certain individual errors for the defeat particularly in central defence.
Ekong was handed his first start of the season at the heart of the defence alongside Kayembe and both players were culpable for the goal which broke the deadlock during the course of the game.
An error between the duo allowed Will Grigg near the left touchline to latch onto the ball and pass to Louie Barry, continuing his run to slide in his teammate’s low centre at the far post before painfully colliding with the frame of the goal. The goal scorer was able to continue though, after receiving treatment as the Hornets trailed at the break.
That error got punished but it could have been punished a lot earlier when they made another error very early into the game. Their sloppiness twice open the door for MK Dons to score after the goal. Edwards didn’t hide his disappointment at the error after the game.
“There were some individual errors, and errors that we then couldn’t recover from. Sometimes when you make a mistake then you want your mate to be able to help you out. We couldn’t do that and we got punished.
“You don’t expect that kind of basic error. When they happen you hope you can recover from them, but we didn’t.”
