Marco Silva laments penalty calls as Watford draw with Tottenham
Saturday 2 December 2017 19:08, UK
Watford boss Marco Silva believes his side could have been given two penalties after they were held to a 1-1 draw by 10-man Tottenham.
Christian Kabasele had given the Hornets a 13th-minute lead at Vicarage Road before Heung-Min Son levelled 11 minutes later.
But Silva was upset that a spot-kick was not given for a foul on Richarlison just before Spurs' equaliser and was even more adamant that Eric Dier should have been punished for a handball in the box in the final seconds of the game.
Speaking of the first incident, in which Richarlison was blocked by Ben Davies, Silva said: "It was a difficult decision but it could have been a penalty.
"Even if the referee didn't give a penalty, we have to do better in that moment. We were in a good position we should have done better to block the pass."
The Dier incident in second-half injury-time was more clear-cut for Silva.
"The last-minute decison is a clear penalty, but it was a tough day for both teams and for the referee as well," he said. "It was a good attitude from both teams."
Watford played most of the second half with a one-man advantage after Davinson Sanchez was shown a straight red card for a high arm on Richarlison, and Silva believes it was the correct decision.
"In that moment it looked a red card. It was a difficult match for the officials, but it looked a red card.
"We had a game against Brighton here and we had 10 players for almost 70 minutes and we didn't lose. We tried to win the game, we had chances, like Tottenham had as well. We did everything to try to win.
"It is most important we keep working hard to improve our team and to improve as players. We started well this season but we have a lot of work to do and we have to keep going."
