Head Coach Slaven Bilić acknowledged that Watford’s goalless draw at home to Preston North End was a chance missed in the race to finish in the Sky Bet Championship play-off places, explaining he was particularly disappointed with his team’s first-half performance at Vicarage Road.
The hotly-contested encounter - that marked João Pedro’s 100th Hornets appearance - produced a smattering of chances for both sides, with the Boy from Brazil and Ismaïla Sarr among those going closest in yellow but ultimately falling short.
The result leaves Bilić’s side ninth in the second-tier standings with 11 games to go, still only four points off the top six but with plenty of room for improvement according to the former Croatia boss ahead of the next test away at Queens Park Rangers (Saturday March 11, 3pm KO).
“We’re disappointed, of course,” said the 54-year-old. “If we were in a more comfortable position higher up the table, or if it was earlier in the season, I might look at things differently, but we were looking to get back on the winning trail here and we didn’t.
“I think if one of the two teams deserved to win the match it was us, but simply we didn’t do enough to do that. We can say we stopped them but that wasn’t our aim, we wanted the three points and we’ve come up short.
“I expected much more in the first half. We couldn’t get on the ball, we were weak when we got in good situations, and we couldn’t get stability or control in the game. In the second half we made a few changes and we were a lot better, but we still couldn’t score a goal.”
Having drawn blanks in successive games - following last weekend’s reverse at Sheffield United (Saturday February 25) - Bilić recognised the team’s recent lack of potency up front, and said he believes several factors are contributing to their lack of cutting edge.
With a week to work his players back at the London Colney training ground in preparation for the trip to Loftus Road, he insisted there is now no time to lose in his battle to kickstart a winning run.
Bilić added: “Since the World Cup break we’ve struggled to score freely. First of all we had many players out injured, and we hoped it would click when they were back but it hasn’t quite happened.
“Today, we knew Preston don’t concede many goals so we were never going to create loads of chances, but I still felt we didn’t do enough. It was always something - maybe if we were in a good situation with people in the box, the cross was bad, or if the cross was good there was a bad touch - it was always something.
“We’ll keep working to try and change things. This wasn’t the last game of the season and it isn’t quite make or break, but we have to be realistic about the fact that we need to start winning games. We’ll go again next week.”
