Watford Defensive Pair Impress Former Championship Star | OneFootball

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Former Championship star Sam Parkin has revealed that Watford’s defensive pairing of James Abankwah and Kevin Keben impressed him with how they played against Luton Town.

The Hornets are currently sitting tenth in the Championship table and are right in the mix to finish top six as they are only three points behind sixth-placed West Brom.

Watford have shown signs of inconsistency throughout the season, but in the last three games, they have picked up seven points, beating Middlesbrough and Luton Town, and being held by Stoke City.

Against Luton Town, Mattie Pollock was on the bench, which Parkin insisted was a big call for Tom Cleveley to make.

Keben has only about 150 minutes of league football under his belt but he started the games against Middlesbrough and Luton Town with Abankwah as two clean sheets were kept.

He missed the trip to Stoke due to what Cleveley called a small issue.

Parkin stated that Cleverley’s new defensive pair have been outstanding and he was impressed by what he saw from them.

“Looking at the team sheet, they have a new goalkeeper, new centre-half partnership, who I thought repelled everything Luton threw at them”, the former EFL attacker said on What The EFL (25:42) about the Hornets.

“I thought they were really impressive, Keben and Abankwah, very, very good.

“I think it was only the second time they have been deployed together, so outstanding.

“When you think how good Pollock has been for Watford this season, it was a big call to start those two guys.”

Watford again kept a clean sheet away at Stoke with Pollock back in the side and playing alongside Abankwah.

Keben is expected to be out of action for Watford until after the international break this month and Cleveley will hope that his side can continue to stay tight at the back in his absence.

Watford have three games before the break, at home to Millwall and Swansea City and away to Oxford United.