Young gun

It’s been a mixed month.

We went into the West Brom game knowing it was a big one. It was the top two teams in the league and a win would have put us even further ahead of the pack.

It was just one of those days though. We were not at the races but full credit to West Brom – they deserved to win 3-0.

Luckily we did not have to wait a whole week for our next game, but it was a difficult trip to Norwich. With Glenn Roeder coming in, all of their players are trying to impress the new manager. We knew it would make it more difficult so to win 3-1 was a good result.

We then played at Colchester who frustrated us. We had enough chances to win the game but we conceded two sloppy goals.

It was an up and down day for me. I missed a penalty but scored a bicycle kick to get us a point.

If we get another penalty then I’d be confident to take it. I’m a striker – I want to score any way that I can. But we have a policy at Watford that if you miss then you pass it on. I’m not sure who will take the next one. It might be whoever gets the ball.

I was pleased with my goal. The ball came to me, I chested it and saw the defender backing off thinking I was going to bring it down. I took the shot early and caught it clean enough – it’s something you try in training and hope it comes off in a game.

That was my seventh goal in eight games. It was hard coming back from a serious knee injury but I’m happy with my form at the moment.

Adam Johnson has gone back to Middlesbrough after a spell on loan with us. It shows how well he has done that Gareth Southgate wants him back. It just shows that if you come in and do well you can move on to bigger and better things. It was the same with Ben Foster, Ashley Young, Hameur Bouazza and now Adam. He has Stewart Downing to compete against but I hope he gets a chance. He’s a good player.

We are still six points ahead of West Brom despite winning just once this month. They will be up there. So will the likes of Charlton and Wolves, even Coventry. We just need to concentrate on what we are doing and not worry about everyone else.

It’s a strange league this year though, everyone is beating everyone else. It’s important to keep winning at home and keeping players fit will be crucial.

I only watched the last 20 minutes of England’s game with Austria but I saw Youngy make his debut. I spoke to him before the game. I asked him if he was nervous but he said he felt fine. He’s a confident lad. Him playing for England is another great advertisement for Watford. We got money for him making his international debut.

I was surprised that Israel beat Russia on Saturday. It’s another chance for England to qualify and I’m sure they will. But you can’t write off Croatia.

How did you get into professional football?
James Cork
I started at Millwall but left there when I was 16 and went to college. I joined Dulwich Hamlet and really enjoyed my time there. I was disappointed to leave Millwall but didn’t ever give up hope of playing professionally. I did well there before signing for Barnet and the rest is history.

What is the highlight of your career so far?
David Archer
Promotion to the Premier League with Watford and scoring a hat-trick on my international debut for Jamaica in a World Cup Qualifier. The season we went up from the Championship was a superb feeling. There had been a big change over the season before and the fans were not sure where we were going. We had a slow start but a win over Cardiff on Sky got us going. We just kicked on from there. Lots of people were thinking our bubble was going to burst but we kept on getting results. We stayed third for most of the rest of the season and beat Palace in the Play-off Semi-Final. We then faced Leeds in the Final. People were saying they were too strong but we beat them 3-0. That was an amazing day.