Quique Sanchez Flores' Watford begin their FA Cup campaign on Saturday, as they prepare to face Newcastle United at Vicarage Road and look to get back to winning ways after struggling in the Premier League in recent weeks.
The game against Steve McClaren's struggling side comes at an ideal time after back-to-back league defeats; two disappointing, late losses against Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester City.
Late goals from Yaya Toure and Sergio Aguero - after the Hornets had taken the lead midway through the second-half with an Aleksander Kolorov own goal - condemned Watford to a frustrating 2-1 defeat, and prompted Flores to say that his side "deserved more" from their impressive performance.
Bouncing back
Now, the Watford players have a chance to bounce back from their recent defeats and give the fans a reason to remember that there are lots of reasons to be happy with the way the Hornets have gone about their business upon their return to the Premier League - impressing with competitive, attractive football and taking some scalps in the process.
Watford have performed way above expectations - as they did for much of 2015 - and as a result find themselves in ninth place, a position that is far from the expectation of relegation put forward by most critics - and indeed many fans - upon their promotion from the Sky Bet Championship last campaign.
Flores now has a chance to give his side the possibility of a cup run - an idea that doesn't seem so far-fetched for a side of Watford's quality. Should Troy Deeney and Odion Ighalo hit the ground running in the FA Cup, the Hornets will definitely take some beating in what Flores has called an "historic competition".
However, they must first take care of Newcastle - a side that have struggled to get going this season. They come into this tie on the back of a 1-0 defeat to Arsenal - a game in which they were admittedly unlucky not to come away with something more concrete, rather than just positives.
Newcastle need a boost
The Magpies haven't won since their 2-1 away win at Tottenham in mid-December, and sit two points adrift of safety in the relegation zone.
When these two teams last met back in September, Newcastle nearly masterminded a brilliant comeback, but fell just short. Ighalo scored twice in the first half to give the Hornets a seemingly unassailable lead, but a Daryl Janmaat goal on 62 minutes got the Magpies back in the game. Sadly for the home fans, they failed to score an equaliser and came away with nothing.
A cup run, then, might just be the thing to boost the Newcastle players' confidence and the fans' enthusiasm, but first they will have to find their way past a very competitive Watford side - and they might be aided by the fact that Flores intends to play "some players who are training really well", but who "are not playing".
This suggests that a weakened side may be on the cards for the Hornets, but one would imagine that come Saturday afternoon, even with a changed team, Watford will have too much quality for McClaren's side.
