Saturday 5 May 2018 18:32, UK
Javi Gracia praised his Watford side for securing survival and says he is happy at Vicarage Road despite speculation surrounding his future.
Gracia was appointed Watford boss in January after the sacking of Marco Silva, and though results have deteriorated since the first half of the campaign, they ensured a fourth straight top-flight season with a 2-1 win over Newcastle on Saturday.
The Spaniard, when pressed on his future, was tight-lipped, and admitted he is proud to belong to Watford.
He told Sky Sports: "I prepare the same way, in the best way I can, doing my best and trying to achieve the best position the club got in the Premier League. That's my objective at the moment, we'll see at the end of the season.
"I'm very proud to belong with this club, I am very happy here. In the end we are very happy because we achieved the objective, to stay in the Premier League again. We can say that now, not before."
Gracia praised the Watford supporters, who got behind their side when needed late in the second half, and also paid homage to the Hornets' defence as Newcastle pressed hard after the break.
"For sure, [the fans] helped, every game we play in Vicarage Road, we feel very comfortable. If you see our results, you see the points we get with home games, where we feel better. We need to improve our away games, and we try to do that in our next game.
"I think we played better in the first half, Newcastle played better in the second half. We suffered a lot in the last minutes, because in the last games we have lost many points in added time. Today we played better, but we were a little bit lucky to get three points.
"We could have killed the game in the first half if we scored the third goal, we didn't, and after that, Newcastle played better, and we had to make very good defensive work and effort. After that we were able to get the points."
