Head Coach Slaven Bilić admitted feeling a mixture of emotions following Watford’s goalless draw against Hull City, with frustration at the overall result being balanced with a sense of pride yielded by his depleted squad’s efforts at Vicarage Road.

Midfielder Hamza Choudhury was forced off through injury early on in the Hornets’ first taste of Sky Bet Championship action for a month, forcing João Pedro to drop into a deeper role and attempt to swing the game’s momentum in the home side’s favour.

While showering the Boy from Brazil with praise Bilić explained he was disappointed not to have kickstarted the festive period with three points, but considering the in-game circumstances he was pleased with the quality and quantity of chances created in the second half.

“I’m gutted with the result, based on what we expected to do today,” said Bilić, 54. “But considering the difficulties we had to deal with, I have nothing but praise for the players.

“The first half wasn’t good enough, but even though we couldn’t get the finishing touch to score a goal we didn’t lack the ball or creativity in the second. We created enough to score.

“We were already very thin on the ground in midfield before the game, so to lose Hamza so early on was very frustrating. I don’t know the full extent of the injury yet, but it meant we had to move João further back as we don’t have any other midfielders we could have brought on.

“He’s on another level, and it was a brilliant performance from him. He is so good he can play anywhere. But our squad is getting scarily small in certain areas and for the players to get through the game like they did was great.”

Having particularly struggled with injuries in defence earlier in the season, the midfield area is of main concern to Bilić at this stage, though striker Rey Manaj’s return was cut short as well to the Head Coach’s dismay.

Bilić said: “A few weeks ago we only had one fit centre-back, but now we’ve recovered in that position and we had [William] Troost-Ekong and [Francisco] Sierralta on the bench today.

“But the issue’s moved around and central midfield is our main worry now. [Edo] Kayembe is out with a calf problem, Choudhury’s picked up a problem today, and the likes of Imrân Louza and Tom Cleverley are obviously still out.

“We brought Rey [Manaj] into the game because he is a goalscorer, and with our added pressure we thought something could happen. He went very close with a chance, but then himself had to be replaced which is another disappointment. This will pass eventually, and now is the time just to stick together and keep going.”

While focusing largely on his own team’s display Bilić did reserve some credit for opponents Hull, who stretched their unbeaten run away from home to five games thanks to the draw at The Vic.

After gradually breaking down Liam Rosenior’s Tigers, without ultimately grabbing the all-important winner, the former Croatia boss is looking forward to another week’s training before Saturday’s trip north to face Huddersfield Town (December 17, 3pm KO).

Bilić added: “Hull don’t necessarily hurt you with a barrage of chances, but they are good at frustrating you with lots of possession, and by stretching teams.

“I expected us to hurt them more than we did in the first half, and after half-time we did create more chances, but I think they’re a better team than their position in the table suggests. We’ll keep working hard, and we’ll look forward to getting back out there next week.”