Javi Gracia hails Watford’s ‘attitude and spirit’ after draw at Ipswich

Watford head coach Javi Gracia was “happy with the attitude” and “spirit” of his players after they came away from Ipswich with a hard-earned point from a 1-1 draw.

By contrast, Ipswich manager Kieran McKenna said he was “frustrated” not to claim three points after doing “more than enough to win the game”.

Both goals came in a five-minute spell in the first half, with the visitors’ leading scorer and captain Imran Louza breaking the deadlock after 16 minutes – his fourth goal in as many games – while Jaden Philogene equalised for Town shortly afterwards.

Gracia said: “We tried to win but we know Ipswich are very strong here and are one of the teams like (league leaders) Coventry and playing away with the difficulties we have this season, but I’m happy with the attitude of my players and the spirit they showed and I think it’s something good for us to get this reward, to be well prepared for the next game.

“We have competed because the other team was really tough and we had to defend well to be more compact in the last part of the game, to defend in a low block and try to be consistent and we did it.

“Around 70 minutes there were two or three chances for each team to counter-attack and there were some chances to score…but they had more clear chances at the end.

“I’m happy with the performance and with the reward of the point.”

McKenna felt his side deserved to win the game after enjoying the lion’s share of possession and shots at goal, and he said: “I’m frustrated with the result and to just get a point in the game.

“There was some ups and downs but I thought there were more positives than negatives and certainly on chances created we’ve done more than enough to win the game.

“So we are frustrated to only come out of it with a point but we have to keep learning and improving, take lessons from it.

“We have conceded a poor goal, so we’re disappointed with that.

“The reaction to the goal was really good, that’s a big positive. We learnt from previous lessons and we got straight back into our football, kept cool heads and scored a really good goal.

“We got ourselves to half-time in a decent position and I think most of the second half we chased it well and we had a couple of great chances.”