Excellent training, good preparation and a full dress rehearsal at The Den only a couple of months ago and yet still Watford were unable to cope with the challenge posed by Millwall – leaving head coach Slaven Bilic disappointed, puzzled and struggling to contain his anger.

The Hornets’ 3-0 defeat away at Millwall in October exposed a problem with dealing with direct long balls, flick-ons and secondary runs, and was perhaps the worst away performance of the season (even allowing for the games at Blackburn and Blackpool).

Nonetheless, it gave the Watford players first-hand experience of what to expect when the Lions visited Vicarage Road on Boxing Day – yet, from the first whistle, the game panned out as if the Hornets had no idea of what Millwall might do as once again they were penned back by the physical, no-nonsense style of the visitors.

MATCH REPORT: Watford 0 Millwall 2

Coming on the back of four clean sheets and a good away win, the performance was even more abject and hard to defend.

“I’m very disappointed and it’s very hard to explain the performance,” admitted Bilic.

“After the win at Huddersfield, everything was very good. Training has been intense, the feeling was very good, the sessions were strong and competitive. We spent a few days preparing for Millwall’s strengths around long balls and second balls as well.

“Then we were poor from the start of the game. They were winning all the second balls and because of that we couldn’t get on the ball. When we did get the ball our passing was poor – everything was poor.

“In the second half with 10 men, we tried to be solid, stay in the game and hopefully create and take a couple of chances. The one with Sarr was probably our moment, because you expect to equalise with that chance.

“But overall, it wasn’t good, no, no, no, not at all. And as I said, it’s difficult to explain that performance based on everything that we did in advance that was excellent. The preparation, the work on the training ground, everything did was in the right direction. But on the day what we did was not good.”

Having been pummelled into footballing submission at The Den two months ago, it was galling for Watford fans to watch the players struggle once again to cope with a style which they had specifically prepared for.

“Yes the way we dealt with what Millwall do was disappointing,” said Bilic. “They were not just winning long balls but they were getting the second balls too.

“As I said before the game, dealing with this is not just about the first ball. It can be difficult to win the first ball against big opponents. But the second ball is the important one, especially in our box, and we didn’t cope with that.

“It’s not just that we talked about Millwall with good intent. We played a game against Millwall a couple of months ago as well which was very similar in terms of what they did, so we know about those things. And we practised for it as well, for a few days in the week.

“I have to give Millwall credit because they are very good at what they do, but also I looked at their record and I didn’t see them scoring lots of goals away from home either.”

Were the Watford players intimidated, scared or just not up for the challenge of the way Millwall play?

“You don’t have the ball all the time in any games, not just against Millwall. You have to be ready to be out of possession in every match,” said Bilic.

“And the challenge Millwall pose isn’t just something that Millwall do. Okay they are at the extreme end of it, but there are many teams in the Championship who will use those sort of tactics.

“We have had to, and we will have to again, cope with those sort of things – and many of them are basic things in football.

“I have said before, if you are playing a guy who is 6ft whatever, you don’t have to win the first ball. And usually that first challenge is around the edge of the box – so what you have to do is take care of the second ball.

“When teams are direct and flick balls on into your box then you have to be aware, you have to be focussed, you have to be disciplined and get to where the ball drops. It cannot happen that every time the ball drops it goes to the opposition.

“I am the first to admit we were poor in those areas.”

To compound the misery, Joao Pedro limped off before half-time and left Vicarage Road on crutches wearing a protective boot.

“I don’t know exactly know what he has done and we will see in the next few days, but right now it doesn’t look good. It’s something in the ligament around the ankle.

“When you lose Joao Pedro, we don’t have a player who is a straight replacement. It’s hard for anyone to find that kind of player. You just don’t have another Pedro sitting in your squad.

“It didn’t look like an awful tackle though. To me it didn’t look like a reckless one.”