Will Hughes is aiming to add more goals to his game following his strike in Watford’s away victory at Burnley on Sunday.
The midfielder scored just his third goal in Watford colours at the weekend after arriving from Derby County last summer.
Hughes has expressed his desire to improve his goalscoring record in a recent interview, saying he has ‘talked about it [scoring] a lot over the last few years’.
Hughes scores his first of the season
Hughes scored the third in Watford’s 1-3 victory away at Burnley - the club’s first win at Turf Moor in 14 years - as the 23-year-old pounced on a misplaced pass, drove forward and drilled a firm strike past Joe Hart from 20-yards out.
The former England under-21 international’s last goal for the Hornets came in a 0-3 win at Newcastle last November - incidentally the last time the Hertfordshire won on enemy territory - in what proved to be an injury-hit campaign for the midfielder.
The former Derby starlet made 15 Premier League appearances in his debut season at Vicarage Road and netted two goals after missing three months of the campaign with a hamstring injury.
Now fully fit and buoyant after his first of the season, Hughes has put pressure on himself to score on a more consistent basis. Speaking to the club’s official website, he said: “It's something I've talked about a lot over the last few years - scoring more goals,” said the midfielder. “Thankfully I've got off the mark early on, and I'll try and carry that on throughout the season - but it's a lot harder than it looks.”
"We know it's early doors"
Hughes got the third of the afternoon after Andre Gray and Troy Deeney netted either side of James Tarkowski’s equaliser. The youngster was impressed with the team performance in Lancashire and was happy to be rid of some unwanted records.
“I think it was Newcastle - our last away win. We know by our standards it's not been good enough,” said Hughes. “It was something we'd looked to improve on this year, and thankfully we've started early on.
“Coming to any away team in the Premier League is difficult, but especially Burnley. Not a lot of teams come here and pick up points, so thankfully we've caught them when they are a bit tired after the Europa League, and we took advantage of that.”
The result comes a week after a 2-0 success against Brighton and Hove Albion at Vicarage Road in the club’s first opening-weekend win in the Premier League in five attempts.
Recording two successive victories in the league since February is a perfect start to Javi Gracia’s first full season in charge, but Hughes knows the side need to remain grounded at this early stage.
“We know it's early doors,” said Hughes. “There's a long way to go - another 36 games.
“Look, we're not getting ahead of ourselves - we'll take it one game at a time and we're looking to the next game now against Crystal Palace on Sunday.”