Troy Deeney stays silent amid goal drought

Troy Deeney is media friendly and regular press visitors to Vicarage Road struggled to recall a time when he turned down a chance to give his thoughts on a game. He’s a great orator, after all. Not yesterday, though. The captain walked hurriedly through the mixed zone in the bowls of the Sir Elton John Stand and said, quite bluntly, when asked for a quick word by the assembled press pack: “No, I’m not talking.”

Deeney, it would be fair to say, had the hump. Whether it was down to being isolated in attack, (although less so than previous matches), Odion Ighalo’s shoot-on-sight policy (watch Deeney’s reaction on the highlights when the Nigerian shoots), the fact he has scored just once since St Albans or the disappointment at the Hornets’ failure to bag all three points from a game where they enjoyed 64 per cent possession and had 16 shots on target is unclear. But he was not in a great mood, that’s for certain.

“He perhaps decided this is not a good day [to talk],” said head coach Quique Sanchez Flores. “We respect the players and he may feel he is tired as he did a lot of running. He was very happy after the match. He said to me he was happy as we had the control of the match.”

Something clearly upset him then in the short walk between the tunnel and the smart new room for the players and their guests. Although he told us after the game at SC Paderborn 07 he does not concern himself with his goal tally in pre-season, Deeney has scored just twice in 507 minutes of action.

“It’s very difficult to connect with Deeney,” said the head coach. “They [West Brom] have a lot of players and it is difficult to connect with [locate] him. He’s one of the leaders of this team and I have no doubts he will score in the next match. The strikers need to score as soon and as quick as possible. Ighalo and Deeney, they have chances but sometimes it is difficult. I am not worried with the goals of our strikers. We create situations so it is coming.”

Chief executive Scott Duxbury joked with talkSPORT presenters on the eve of the match that he had told Deeney “he needs to pull his finger out as Ighalo is the top scorer.”

Click below to read Deeney’s candid and remorseful thoughts about the night that proved to be a defining one in his career and indeed his life.

Troy Deeney opens up about the night 3 students were injured and he was arrested http://t.co/vfU9SMEBri #watfordfc pic.twitter.com/HuhlRXofD8 — WD Sport (@WDSport_) August 1, 2015

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