A fourth game unbeaten but Tom Cleverley was far from content with the 0-0 draw against Preston at Vicarage Road.

Watford dominated possession, particularly in the second half, but mustered just two on-target goal attempts – a painfully familiar pattern this season.

So, when he was asked if he was satisfied with a point from a difficult afternoon, Cleverley was honest.

“No, not at all,” he said.

“This isn’t where I wanted us to be and it’s not where I want us to get to in these sort of games.

“We have to try and find the balance of going for a win and not risking a loss.

“I thought we were a little bit conservative today and lacked that killer edge in and around the box.

“We improved the tempo and the quality in the second half, and we were pushing without having that final bit.”

It was a very bitty game where neither side could ever build up the momentum to dominate properly.

“The game just never really got any rhythm,” Cleverley said.

“I was trying to create some tempo from the side in the first half, and I thought we improved on that in the second half.

“It seemed like every time we were getting a minute or two of rhythm there’d be a foul, a throw-in that took an age or some sort of break in play.

“We just could not sustain the pressure in order to grind them down.”

In the second half, the visitors seemed quite happy with a point and that only added to the Watford frustrations.

“It is one big learning curve, and I think Preston paid us a lot of respect today which we can take as a compliment,” said the Watford boss.

“We just didn’t have the answers in order to break them down, so we’ll analyse that as a staff, deliver that to the players and then look to be better next time.

“I don’t think it was a question of quality, especially when you look at the players we had out there.

“I felt it was more a mentality issue.

“We needed to keep banging on the door, look for that ruthless edge and want to break through.

“You have to go out and earn a win rather than sort of coast through and wait for something to happen for you.”