Blackburn boss Valerien Ismael says new boy Ryoya Morishita was worth the wait

Valerien Ismael said new Blackburn signing Ryoya Morishita was worth the wait after he fired home a well-taken winner in a 1-0 victory over Watford.

Morishita confidently side-footed past Egil Selvik early in the second half to gift Ismael a hard-fought win over his former employers, with Yuki Ohashi providing a classy assist at Vicarage Road.

“When I knew we had the chance to get him, I told the club I would wait,” Ismael explained. “The wait was worth it. Today you could see why he can be very important for us.

“The quality, the experience he has and the connection already with Yuki will be very important for us.

“In my heart I was so convinced, so I said we have to wait. I’m very pleased that we are getting our reward. The combination with Yuki was perfect. It was so important to create that connection straight away between the two players.”

Rovers’ Japanese pair had also combined in the first period, when Morishita clattered the crossbar from long range after Ohashi’s flick-on.

Watford were direct and had plenty of the ball but Blackburn enjoyed the better of the chances, with Todd Cantwell stinging the fingertips of Selvik in the 24th minute and coming up with an acrobatic effort late in the game.

“It was exactly the game plan we had,” Ismael continued. “We knew we had to be strong in the first 15 minutes. We knew we had to stay calm and after 20 minutes you saw that we had more of the ball, we started to create chances, we were very dangerous.

“The only thing I said to the boys is that we need to improve our consistency.”

Although Watford fashioned half-chances through Mamadou Doumbia and Luca Kjerrumgaard, they ultimately came up empty-handed on a day when they wore a one-off blue kit to commemorate the upcoming 50th anniversary of Sir Elton John’s association with the club.

The Hornets also failed to keep a clean sheet for a sixth straight game under new manager Paulo Pezzolano, leaving them 17th in the Championship, two places behind the visitors.

Pezzolano said: “There were a few players missing and we chose from the players that were available. Regardless, that was not the main issue. The main issue is that we lacked ideas and we lacked balance.

“We were a little bit static on the pitch and we weren’t able to take advantage of the spaces they were giving us. We lacked mobility. It was about not being able to use those spaces.

“We wanted to be very offensive and aggressive. That was one of the reasons behind the line-up. Maybe we did it in the first 15 minutes but I assume responsibility 100 per cent for the outcome of the game.

“We have a few players out for different reasons. They’re returning. We need to think about today as a day when things didn’t go our way, and keep working.”