No Ismaila Sarr, the absence through injury of Edo Kayembe and the early loss of Hamza Choudhury meant Watford went into the game with Hull with problems, that were exacerbated inside the opening minutes.

Head coach Slaven Bilic said he was frustrated by the draw, and particularly the failure to take one of a number of second half chances.

However, he also put his frustration and disappointment into context.

“Considering what we had to do before the game, and also during the game - to have a team with enough quality to create chances - I’m very pleased with the way the guys reacted,” he said.

“I spoke on Friday about the lack of quality and quantity in midfield, and then after 10 minutes we lost probably the best of our remaining midfielders. We had to put Joao Pedro in midfield, and he is so good he can cover almost every position.

“But we didn’t have anything on the bench, we didn’t have a natural midfielder.

“So when I consider all that, I only have words of praise for the guys.”

Having shared the backdrop to the game, Bilic then reiterated he was also disappointed, particularly with his side’s finishing.

“I’m gutted with the result, don’t get me wrong,” he said.

“Already by half time I was thinking this is going to be very scrappy, but the most important thing was not to concede a goal.

“The question I asked was do we have enough quality on the pitch to score a goal. For me the plan was don’t concede and see if we can get one.

“I was told Rey Manaj was fit enough for 20 minutes, so I put him in to try and do that, to score.

“We created much more in the second half, so I am disappointed but I have mixed emotions because I felt the players gave everything.

“Apart from our finishing in the second half, going forward we created chances – more than enough. You have to take them.

“It’s all about the result, but if you can’t get the result then you want to be a position where you got something from the game.”

Since he joined the club, Bilic has seen whole areas of his team disappear into the treatment room at the same time – and now it’s the midfield that is seriously stretched.

“We have a very demanding period in front of us, and now we have to cope with it with a very tiny squad,” said Bilic.

“It was tiny anyway, after today we are getting to a point where it is scary tiny – in quantity and quality, in certain positions.

“We had a problem with defenders in my first five or six games here and I said then it was the time to stick together until we have players back.

“The same now. We have injuries but the situation will pass.”

As he was talking in the immediate aftermath of the game, Bilic had little to update the media on with regards to Choudhury’s injury.

“I don’t know exactly what he’s done yet, I just know I saw him with his leg in a brace. As for how long he might be out for, I just don’t know,” he said.

As for the calf injury that ruled Kayembe out, Bilic said he was expecting the midfielder to be missing for a month.

“Nowadays it seems even the minor muscle pulls mean four or five weeks out. I get told ‘it’s not bad, maybe four to five weeks’ – to me, not bad is one week out!

“When I played, we were back playing after two weeks! But these days it’s more even for a minor problem.”