Tommy Smith and Jobi McAnuff expected to make Watford trip to Spain (From Watford Observer)

Tommy Smith and Jobi McAnuff expected to make Watford trip to Spain

6:37pm Monday 20th July 2009

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Malky Mackay expects Tommy Smith and Jobi McAnuff to fly out to with the squad tomorrow for their pre-season trip to Spain.

Mackay was speaking after the Hornets 3-0 win over Wealdstone on Saturday and although there was a training session today, the Scot was confident the duo would travel despite missing the weekend’s game.

The 37-year-old said: “At the moment we are going to be taking 24 or 25 players so everyone here today will go with us, maybe with the exception of young Kurtney Brooks – he is on the fringe at the moment. But depending on injuries and we’ll see how Monday goes, there should be 24 or 25.”

He added: “Tommy will come with us. He got a sore shin on Friday that I just felt that there was no need for him to come and play here today, so he should be back training fine on Monday and he will come with us.

“Don Cowie had sickness and diarrhoea overnight, I emphasise not swine flu, so will come with us on Tuesday. Others are perhaps touch and go such as Will Hoskins. Jobi is another one who had sickness and diarrhoea at the beginning of the week and came back in on Wednesday feeling tired and lethargic, so again there was no real cause for him to play here today. So he went in this morning and did a little bit and he’ll hopefully be back training on Monday and definitely coming with us on Tuesday.”

Watford will be playing two games during their week-long trip, although the standout game against former Watford loanee Jermaine Pennant’s Real Zaragoza has been cancelled.

The Hornets will now play CF Balaguer at Ivars d'Urgell, in Lleida, next Friday and UE Lleida at their ground Camp d'Esports, in Lleida, the following Monday, with both games kicking off at 8.30pm.

Although CF Balaguer play in the fourth tier of Spanish football and UE Lleida the third, Mackay dismissed suggestions the pre-season trip would not be productive.

He said: “Some people say it is a waste of time to go and do your pre-season training trips but it’s absolutely not.

“There are three or four reasons that the trip is imperative. We have a new group coming together with a new management team, so you get time together to build relationships, you get them at close quarters and you are able to train them in quality sessions, with rest and recovery without domestic situations happening as they do.

“The players are in that training camp and we make sure that it is well organized. I myself flew out to Spain near the end of last season and actually looked at every aspect of the trip so I personally know about where we are going and everything about it.

“I know it’s well organized and it gives us a chance to build rapport, build relationships among the players and the staff and also test ourselves in a couple of games against international opposition, where they will be slightly different in terms of the way they play. But the fact that you are actually playing against different types and different techniques I think is always going to help.”

Watford will announce exactly who will travel tomorrow morning and two names fans will be looking out for is Mat Sadler and John-Joe O’Toole, after both were put into the Development squad for Saturday’s game, along with Lewis Young.

But Mackay insists the trio, who played a full 90 minutes against Hampton and Richmond Borough, were in the squad to increase their fitness.

The Scot said: “Like everything they need fitness and they need games and they could have come with everybody here [Wealdstone] today [Saturday] but that would have served no purpose for them or their fitness at the moment.

“It is about time on pitches and for that end, they go and play there today and they get 60, 80 or 90 minutes and it tops up their fitness.”

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