Head Coach Chris Wilder is under no illusions about the importance of every game in the race to seal a top-six spot in the 2022/23 Sky Bet Championship table, and he is hopeful his team can build on Tuesday night’s win over Birmingham when Wigan Athletic visit Vicarage Road on Saturday (March 18, 3pm KO).

Following a disappointing start to his tenure - with defeat at Queens Park Rangers last weekend (March 11) - 55-year-old Wilder oversaw a great response by his team second time out, marking his first home game in charge with three much-needed points.

Though he believes there is still room for improvement Wilder has been buoyed by the squad’s efforts in training this week, and with just nine games of the campaign remaining he knows another strong performance against the Latics is vital if they are to bridge the six-point gap up to the play-off positions.

“There’s been a great mood around the camp over the last few days, which is always the case when you win a game of football,” said Wilder.

“We know that we weren’t at it against QPR, and Tuesday night was a lot better. There was a period in the game where we can look back and say we could’ve done things better in terms of our decision-making and organisation, but we’ve gone through those things since then.

“We’re in a good place, and we’re all looking forward to Saturday, but this is as big as it gets now because we know we can’t afford many slip-ups. We’re back at home in front of our supporters, and it would be great to get a result to end a week that started poorly on a good note.”

The visit of Shaun Maloney’s Wigan marks the last clash ahead of March’s international break, with the Hornets’ next second-tier outing away at local rivals Luton Town scheduled for Saturday April 1 (12.30pm KO).

Having yielded good momentum from the victory in midweek Wilder knows how important it could be to build on that going into the break, when he will be able to spend a prolonged period with several members of the team at the London Colney training ground.

He said: “There’s no downside to winning football matches - everyone’s smiling and happy at the moment, and we want to continue that and sign off for the international break in the right way.

“It’s going to be a difficult break in some ways because we’re going to have a lot of players leaving us, but we’ll try to be smart in terms of the work we do with the players who will be here, while keeping our fingers crossed that those who do go come back fit and healthy, looking forward to helping us with the league run-in.”

Wigan come into the game with everything to play for, sitting at the bottom of the table, six points adrift of safety and without a victory since a 1-0 triumph over fellow strugglers Huddersfield on February 11.

Facing a relegation-threatened team presents its own challenges according to Wilder, and he insisted Watford won’t underestimate a side fighting for their lives, that boasts a wealth of experience and know-how at this level.

Wilder added: “They’ll have understood from the off that this was going to be a difficult season, having been promoted last year, and there’s been quite a bit of turnaround with managers and players.

“It’s been a difficult period for them, but they’ve stayed competitive and they are dangerous. They’ve never really been thumped by anyone, and they’ve picked up a lot of draws so we know it’s going to be tricky.

“I have a huge amount of respect for every team in this division, so my message to the players is that this is as tough as it gets. We have to earn the right from the first whistle, and if we play like we can do then we’ll have a good chance of getting a result.”