TheCable

After eight long years, championship side, Watford found its way to the Barclays premier league (BPL) on Saturday, April 25, 2015, having secured 88 points with game to spare.

The leading instrument to the promotion of Slavisa Jokanovic’s side is Nigerian striker Odion Ighalo, who says he is “fulfilled” that his EPL dream has finally materialised.

The team has run the season with four managers, the highest number in the league, with three of the managers seeing red in the first two months of the campaign.

Though Jokanovic takes credit for this victory, leading the team for a major and successful part of the season, his three top scorers, Troy Deeney, Matej Vydra and Odion Ighalo have to be mentioned as well..

In the last historic 90 minutes that promoted the team from 85 to 88 points and consequently to the BPL, the trio made valid impact as Ighalo set up Deeney for the first goal, with Deeney assisting Vydra to put the icing on the victory over Brighton.

Watford has led the season’s 45 games played with 90 goals; 56 of those goals came from the spearheading trio. Twenty of those goals came from 25-year-old super eagles star, Ighalo.

At the turn of 2015, the team sat at an uncomfortable 6th position on the English championship table, but today sits comfortably at the peak of the table with some points to spare.

Ighalo was that one player in the team whose efforts in the team cannot be separated from the team’s promotion story. In 2015 alone, he scored 16 goals which effectively launched the team five places to the top of the table.

The Nigeria international, who has a penchant for promotion told AfricanFootball how fulfilled he helped Watford secure promotion to one of the most competitive leagues in the world.

“I am fulfilled with the EPL ticket. My dream has been to play in the EPL, so with this ticket, it is a dream come true for me and I am happy to be part of this with Watford,” he said.

“I thank God Almighty for a good season and the promotion.”

While in Granada, 2009, Ighalo’s 17 goals helped pushed the Spanish side through to the primera. ‘The Hornet’ is Nigeria’s highest goalscorer in England and the entire Europe, setting him up as a plus for Stephen Keshi’s side in forthcoming games.

Ighalo is not satisfied with just promotion, hence no room for complacency as he heads for the championship trophy.

“My next target is to win our last match and win the championship trophy to crown a great season,” he said.

The former Julius Berger star has had a rather “loanly” career. He has spent five years (six seasons) on loan at Granada and Cesena, and has finally shown to the world once again that he is worth the permanent deal Watford gave him after three months of play.