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QUEIROZ WARY OF COMPLACENCY
By Simon Stone, PA Sport Chief Football Writer

Carlos Queiroz has urged Manchester United not to use their six-point Barclays Premiership lead as a safety net.

United head into Wednesday night's Old Trafford encounter with rock-bottom Watford knowing 12 victories from their final 14 matches would ensure they reclaim their title after a three-year barren spell.

Given the tricky trips to Tottenham, Liverpool, Everton and Manchester City that lie ahead, as well as the crunch showdown with chief rivals Chelsea currently pencilled in for Sunday April 15, United could be forgiven for viewing their present advantage as a much-needed buffer zone.

However, Queiroz believes they must adopt a more positive mentality and look to stretch their lead rather than allow it to be slowly whittled away.

"The points are important," said Sir Alex Ferguson's assistant. "Clearly, we would prefer to be six points in front rather than three or four.

"But we cannot afford to rely on it and we must not be satisfied. We want more and we need more.

"Once we start to lose focus and concentrate on what other teams are doing, that is when we will start to make more mistakes.

"At the moment, the title is between us and Chelsea. But we must not forget we are in a very difficult league.

"Teams like Arsenal, Liverpool, Tottenham and others are perfectly capable of interfering in one way or another."

It had initially been suggested Wayne Rooney might again start on the bench but, with Louis Saha still to recover from a knee injury, the United boss may opt to draft the youngster straight back into his starting line-up.

Cristiano Ronaldo is also available again after enjoying a brief break in Dubai, while Edwin Van der Sar will replace Tomasz Kuszczak in goal - the one certain change from the team which beat Portsmouth to earn an FA Cup fifth round tie with Reading.

Although few expect Watford to pose any threat despite their current two-match winning run, a reminder of Sunderland's draw at Old Trafford last Easter should shake out any complacency from home ranks.

"If you want to become champions, you cannot afford to make mistakes like we did last season," he said.

"When you make huge mistakes like that you pay a very high price indeed.

"We need to consider that result but we don't want to spend too much time dwelling on it, we want to think about the things we are doing right and emphasise how well we have been playing."