While many Watford supporters would have been targeting three points from Saturday’s game against Brighton in the lead up to the match, I think most can be satisfied with a point given the circumstances.

After Miguel Britos’ red card early on, the game immediately changed and when you are reduced to 10 men it’s always going to be an uphill battle, irrespective of the opposition.

I’ll come onto the red card in a second, but I felt the Hornets did remarkably well to hang on to secure a point. We showed great resilience and organisation to grind out a point, in what was a real team performance from the Golden Boys.

Marco Silva’s men could have quite easily lost their heads after the sending off, as they did on occasions last season, but instead, the Hornets showed great spirit. We showed that when the going gets tough, we are prepared to roll up our sleeves and get our hands dirty.

We saw players who genuinely wanted to play for the shirt and were prepared to put their body on the line to preserve a point and as a fan, that is incredibly pleasing to see. It seems that Silva is really having an effect on the team, who are certainly buying into the Portuguese’s philosophy.

Despite this, Britos’ stupidity in getting sent off did cost us, as I’m certain that if Watford had 11 men on the pitch, we would have won that game. It was a horrendous tackle from the Uruguayan and a red card all day long.

But what irked me the most was that there was no need for him to make the challenge at all.

Anthony Knockaert isn’t in a position of great danger. He’s not running towards goal. If anything, he’s running away from goal and towards the corner flag.

All Britos has got to do is stay on his feet and shepherd him out wide. If he does that, there’s a good chance he sticks it out for a throw or a corner. There’s no need to make that tackle whatsoever. 

For a player of Britos’ experience, it’s incredibly disappointing that he has made such a stupid decision and it now means Watford will be without him for three games.

Despite this, I am satisfied with a draw, and I’m sure many others will be as well, as playing with 10 men for over an hour is always difficult. As soon as referee Graham Scott sent Britos off, I said to the people around me that I would have taken a point, so I’m certainly satisfied with the result given the circumstances.

There were, however, plenty of positives to take out of the game, the main one being the performance of Christian Kabasele.

After the Bristol City game in mid-week, I was in two minds whether Kabasele would ever become a permanent fixture in Watford’s defence, as I thought he had been poor and naïve. But what a difference a couple of days makes as against Brighton - it was a complete contrast.

I thought Kabasele was immense against the Seagulls, as he pulled off some great tackles and interceptions while also keeping Brighton’s Tomer Hemed quiet too.

It looked like both he and Sebastian Prodl had built up a good understanding at the back and I would go as far as saying that this was Kabasele’s best performance in a Watford shirt since he joined last year.

Another player who deserves a mention is Tom Cleverley. Now, Cleverley is by no means a player that is going to get you off your seat or someone who’s going to pull off a piece of skill to get past his man. That’s not his game.

But you can always rely on him to perform, and he was another who was excellent on Saturday.

He was played in about three different positions, starting as an attacking midfielder, before then being moved out wide and he then spent the entire second half at right-back, but Cleverley took it all in his stride and put in an excellent display.

All in all, I think most of us would have taken the point after the game on Saturday, given the circumstances, and there were certainly some positives to take out of the match.

Five points from our first three games represents a good start from the Hornets I feel and they can certainly build on that tally with matches against the likes of Southampton, Swansea and West Bromwich Albion next month.

This team can only get better and if we can continue our early season promise, then we’ll certainly be in for a very exciting campaign.

Bradley Hayden is the founder and sole writer of @WatfordFCBlog