Former Watford central defender Craig Dawson was handed a relatively easy afternoon at Vicarage return on his first return to the club.
He was of course the recipient of a few boos – as is the way with some strange football fans – but once again he played his part in a back line stripped of the services of Kurt Zouma and Angelo Ogbonna.
Daws was an incredible buy at around £2m – £3m after his spell on loan at the club and continues to be one of the first names on the team sheet as a result of the two injuries,
Speaking to West Ham TV, Dawson was delighted to help the Hammers return to winning ways after their own three-match run without a Premier League victory and climb back into the top five.
He said: “We’ve had some disappointing results and it was a great reaction from the lads. To score four goals was really important.
“The lads were impressive up top. We took our chances well and it could have been a few more on another day, so credit to the lads.
“The boys up front have got everything so it’s really important for them to keep firing, keep scoring the goals and keep exciting the fans. Obviously, we’ve got to do our own jobs behind them, but we’ve got a dangerous front four.”
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“It’s good to be back in the side,” he confirmed. “Obviously the injuries were unfortunate and we hope the boys are back soon, but it’s important we build on today and keep going.
“It’s one of those things when we’ve not had the luck of the draw with a couple of decisions that haven’t gone our way, so hopefully we can keep going and keep building on this win.”
Overall, Dawson could probably not have wished for a better 2021, as he played his part in helping the Hammers to a record Premier League points total and qualification for the UEFA Europa League knockout stages.
“It’s been a great year, so I’ve just got to keep it going now, keep working hard and hopefully have some good results,” he said, with typical modesty.
“Obviously, it’s been great and it does get me excited, but we can always keep working hard and keep improving. That’s all the lads want to do, keep pushing. We’ve had a few setbacks recently, much to our disappointment, but we’ll keep working hard.”
Dawson and his teammates go into 2022 in optimistic mood, and he added: “The gaffer is right – we can improve and we will improve. We’ve just got to keep working hard.”
