Watford boss Silva defends Gomes over Brighton winner

Watford manager Marco Silva refused to pin the blame on goalkeeper Heurelho Gomes after a 1-0 defeat at Brighton this afternoon.
Watford boss Marco Silva. Picture by Phil Westlake (PW Sporting Photography)Watford boss Marco Silva. Picture by Phil Westlake (PW Sporting Photography)
Watford boss Marco Silva. Picture by Phil Westlake (PW Sporting Photography)

Gomes failed to keep out Pascal Gross' 64th-minute winner, despite getting a strong hand to the shot, and the Hornets suffered a fourth successive Premier League defeat.

Brighton ended a seven-game winless run with the victory and moved up a place to 12th in the top flight, just a point behind Watford.

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On the goal, Silva said: "It's football. Gomes has been at a very good level. In some moments he has saved us and has done fantastic things for our team.

"We needed to do better before the player shot the ball. To be clear, it's not because of Gomes we lost the game."

Talking about the game as a whole, Silva said: "It's a bad run and at the moment we need to react.

"We didn't start well, Brighton started different to us, a bit faster and the first moments of the game we had some problems defending deep.

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"We started to come more into the match after the first 20 to 25 minutes and the game was a little bit more balanced.

"We changed a few things at half-time and the game was more balanced in the second half. We had a very good chance with Richarlison before they scored with our mistake.

"We were in position and set up to start different after a free kick to us but one loose pass and we lost the ball and they scored.

"After that moment, we reacted more with heart than with quality.

"We didn't perform well today but we had one more chance with Okaka at the end but we didn't score and they won."