Nugent: It’s Only Half-Time

The Foxes’ 15-goal top-scorer headed a crucial late winner at King Power Stadium on Thursday night, sending Nigel Pearson’s men into Sunday’s second leg with a slender 1-0 advantage.

But the Liverpool-born striker knows there is still plenty of work to be done if City are to advance to the Wembley final on 27 May, and reckons the Hornets will have a sting in the tail should City take their eye off matters in hand at Vicarage Road.

“It’s a massive result, but we all know it’s only half-time,” Nugent told Foxes Player after Thursday night’s victory.

“We’ll have another tough game on Sunday, but the lads are buzzing and we’re looking forward to it.

“We can’t get too carried away; we know it’s not over. They’ve scored a lot of goals at home this season and have Troy Deeney, who has scored a lot of goals, coming back into the side so it will be a different test for our defenders.

“But I’m sure if we go there and perform as we did tonight, we can go there and get a victory.”

Nugent’s late strike ended a run of 16 games without a goal for the likeable forward, now in his second season at King Power Stadium.

And having finally ended the wait on Thursday, the 28-year-old fans’ favourite is hoping to find some form on what has been a happy personal hunting ground in recent seasons.

“It’s been a long while. I’m a striker, I’m paid to score goals and it’s nice to have got an important one that gives us a lead to take into the second leg,” he said.

“I don’t want to jinx it, but I’ve got a good record at Watford, I’ve scored a few times there before so I can’t wait for Sunday to come.

“I’m sure they’re going to put us under a lot of pressure, but it’s up to us to relieve that, hit them on the counter-attack and get that second goal.”

Having been backed by nearly 30,000 fans – King Power Stadium’s highest attendance of the season – on Thursday night, Nugent is expecting more vocal support from the Blue Army in Hertfordshire at the weekend.

City will travel to Vicarage Road with the maximum allocation of 2,200 away supporters behind them and Nugent hopes the team can feed off the same energy that inspired them in the first leg.

“The atmosphere was electric tonight,” he said.

“The fans were different class and we know there will be over 2,000 behind us on Sunday so we’ll be hoping to send them home happy.”