KEITH SOUTHERN believes Alan Lee is ready to build on his first goal of the season as Huddersfield Town prepare to tackle buoyant Leicester.
All the focus was on new arrival Jermaine Beckford when Town took on Watford – until Lee replaced the Leicester loanee and struck within five minutes.
Beckford in ineligible against his parent club at the John Smith’s, while James Vaughan remains under treatment for the groin injury which kept him out of Saturday’s 3-2 defeat.
That means Lee, 34, could be in line for a first start of the Championship campaign, and midfielder Southern says his teammate is more than ready.
“Alan’s been chomping at the bit to get on the pitch,” said Southern. “He gives the manager something a bit different with his prowess in the air.”
Southern, himself an ever-present, says sixth-placed Town need to come out fighting after suffering their first home defeat this time around.
“We need to show our character. We can’t feel sorry for ourselves. This is a chance to make amends,” added the ex-Blackpool man, who had helped Town win their previous three games.
“We didn’t hit the levels we have done in recent weeks against Watford. It shows you can’t take anything for granted. If you think you’ve cracked it, you get a kick where it hurts.
“And with the expectation level at this club, you’ve got be careful. We’ve had a great start, but Leicester will be no pushovers.”
Southern reckons Town can also learn from the late penalty which gave Troy Deeney the chance to claim Watford’s win.
Fans claimed Italian frontman Fernando Forestieri took a dive to win the spot kick, but Southern pointed out: “There was a bit of naivety from us.
“We didn’t clear our lines or deal with the second ball. We’ll have to take the medicine for that. Forestieri did go down a bit easy, but if I was on their side I’d have been claiming a penalty.
“Forget the controversy. The simple truth is we didn’t deserve to win the game. Did we even deserve to be 1-0 up? I’m not so sure.
“Oliver Norwood’s set-pieces are brilliant and he came up with a great effort to put us ahead, but we failed to kick on from there.”
“Once we got the first goal I thought we’d kick on. Watford have thrown a lot of players together and I thought they could be there for the taking.”
