Hornets: Robinson needs to 'get a grip'

3:37pm Monday 15th January 2001

PAUL ROBINSON, who faces a two-match suspension commencing with the Fulham game, has got to learn and has shown no sign of doing so yet.

Watford manager Graham Taylor admitted he thought the full back "a little bit unlucky" to be booked against Wimbledon.

The Watford boss said: "We talk about our younger players neading to learn. He is not old in years but he has a number of games behind him now but it is ten cautions again for Paul and we are only just into the new year.

"There is a side to his play I will support, in that he is very committed, but he now faces a two-match automatic suspension. It is not as if it is just this season.

"There will be occasions when he will be cautioned because of the committed approach. But when you are tackling you have to be right because it is not just a free kick but a caution. You can't just clatter into people because you enable the opposition to enjoy an unchallenged chance to put the ball into your box.

"I know he wants to get a grip of this but he has not been able to. There is an art to tackling in today's game and throwing yourself at the ball is not on nowadays."

Richard Johnson was heading for a miraculously fast recovery from his knee ligament injury but is now slowing down.

Taylor said: "He has had an arthroscope inspection and they have cleaned up the joint. Hopefully this will settle down. As a result he is now being slowed down and I think Richard has come to terms with the fact that it does not matter how long it takes, as long as he gets it right and he recovers."

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