Manager confirms starting berth for Hooper in Watford clash

CHRIS Hughton has confirmed that Gary Hooper will start in tomorrow night’s Capital One Cup Third Round clash against Watford at Vicarage Road.

While speaking at his pre-match press conference at Colney on Monday afternoon, City’s boss also said that young winger Josh Murphy will be included in the match day squad for a competitive game for the first time.

“Gary Hooper will start tomorrow, which we’re delighted about,” said Hughton.

“I thought when he came on during the game on Saturday he certainly got in the right places, and he’s had sufficient training now to start tomorrow so we look forward to that.

“Young Josh Murphy will also be in the squad. He deserves it – he’s a young player that’s done very well in our development games and he deserves that opportunity to be around the first team tomorrow night.”

Hughton added that Team Captain Sebastien Bassong will miss out on the fixture as he undergoes a scan on the hamstring injury picked up against Aston Villa, while Ricky van Wolfswinkel is also a doubt.

“Seb will certainly miss tomorrow’s game. He’s having a scan today so we’ll assess it then. We hope it’s not so bad. It was a slight hamstring that he went off with, so we’re hoping it’s not as bad as first thought,” he explained.

“We’ve got a few knocks and bruises but we’re ok. Ricky got a knock – a whack on the side of his toe – and at the moment he’s a little bit sore but we don’t feel it’s anything too serious.”

City reached the quarter-finals of the Capital One Cup last season and Hughton insists Tuesday’s meeting with the Hornets is an encounter they definitely want to progress from.

“It of course comes behind what we want to do in the Premier League but it’s an important game for us, so we’ll go about it the right way,” he said.

“At the moment, it’s valuable for the squad if I’m looking at those who are pushing for places, but that doesn’t take away anything from what we want as an end product – we want to go through to the next round.

“Watford are a very good side at home, and they’ll play in a certain way which hasn’t changed too much from what they did last year. We expect a tough game.”

You can watch Chris Hughton's pre-match press conference in full on Canaries Player HERE