November 10 2008

Ben Watson

BEN WATSON has insisted that off field matters won't effect him, as speculation about his future in SE25 continues.

The 23-year-old scored his fifth goal of the campaign in the 2-0 victory over Coventry at the weekend, and is trying his best to ignore what is being said about his future.

He told the Croydon Guardian: "I get paid to play football and that's what I’m doing. All the talk has nothing to do with me. People can talk, say this, say that, I’m just getting on with the football."

The midfielder attracted interest from a variety of Championship clubs during the summer, and was left playing reserve football after Neil Warnock insisted he only wanted to play players who were commited to the club.

Since the transfer window closed at the end of August, WATSON has been a regular in the first eleven, and continues to justify the reason for all the interest in him by being one of Palace's best players so far this season.

Despite an indifferent start to the season WATSON thinks they've now got it right on the field.

"The last couple of weeks we have struggled but today the gaffer told us to go out there and enjoy it, which we did and it’s paid off," he said.

"We've watched a couple of videos. Seen what we’ve done right and what we’ve done wrong. And we’ve put the things we've done wrong right. It's as simple as that."

Speaking about his free kick on Saturday WATSON admitted the goal was rather fortunate.

"The goal took a big deflection, but they all count and I’ll be claiming it," he said.