Troy Deeney’s first-half strike helped the Hornets secure all points at stake against Valerien Ismael’s Tykes at Vicarage Road on Tuesday evening 

William Troost-Ekong has attributed Watford’s 1-0 win over Barnsley in Tuesday’s English Championship clash to better preparation.

The Hornets slumped to a 1-0 defeat to the Tykes in the first-leg played in October 2020 thanks to a sixth-minute strike by Alex Mowatt.

However, Xisco Munoz’s men retaliated their loss by the same goal margin after captain Troy Deeney beat goalkeeper Jack Walton from the penalty spot in the 27th minute.

Reacting to his side’s result against Valerien Ismael’s side, the former Udinese star disclosed the lessons learned from their defeat at Oakwell proved vital against the visitors.

“We were better prepared this time,” Troost-Ekong told Hive Live.

“We had to try and get revenge after what happened when we played them away.

“They played real Championship football, it was a real battle tonight, but we did well to try and get the ball onto the ground and play as much as possible.

“We knew this was going to be a massive week, we wanted to get as many points as we can to attack the top again and we did what we needed to do in the last two games at home.”

Troost-Ekong fluffed a big chance to put the encounter to bed – turning Philip Zinckernagel’s cross wide from six yards. The 27-year-old disclosed that he was saddened not to pull clear of his fellow defender in the goalscoring ranks.

“Everyone wants to contribute, and I think I should’ve done better with my chance, so that’s going to be haunting me tonight but hopefully soon enough I’ll get another goal,” he continued.

“I’m trying to get more goals than Kaba so that was definitely the aim! We’ve got some good competition going with the defenders, so I was disappointed about that.

“We’ve got midfielders scoring goals though, like in the last game, we’re creating a lot of opportunities and we’re not giving many away.”

Thanks to this result, Watford climbed to third in the Championship table with 43 points from 24 outings – seven points adrift of leaders Norwich City. They travel to the Bet365 Stadium on Friday for their next clash with Stoke City.