Striker Keinan Davis concurred with the comments made by head coach Slaven Bilic that the team went into yesterday’s game with Millwall feeling well prepared and full of confidence.

The Hornets had won 2-0 at Huddersfield last time out, and spent significant time in the period leading up to Boxing Day preparing for the particular challenge Millwall pose.

However, that all seemed to go out of the window from the moment the game started, and the Hornets endured a miserable afternoon that ended with defeat, 10 men on the pitch and Joao Pedro on crutches.

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“It’s a tough defeat,” said 24-year-old Davis, who had appeals for a penalty waved away in the first half.

“We went into it feeling good after a good result last time out, but we gave away a sloppy goal in the first half and then went down to 10 men.

“That obviously makes things harder, because everyone’s got to cover a lot more ground, but I actually thought we battled well. We had a bit of momentum, but that second goal killed things off because it just made that mountain even harder to climb.

“We know we’ve got a couple more games coming up in quick succession, so hopefully we can just put this one behind us and recapture our form quickly.”

One good aspect of the festive fixture list is the games come thick and fast, and Watford now have away trips to Swansea (December 30) and Norwich (January 2) with which they can aim to right the wrongs of Boxing Day.

“We’re all really desperate to bounce back straight away, and we know we’ve got a good opportunity to do that with two big games coming up,” said Davis.

“They’ll both be tough games, against good sides, but we’ll be on the lookout for the points.

“We want to repay the supporters for their brilliant support. We know it’s Christmas and they’ve come out to support us, we all appreciate it and we hope we can get results for them at Swansea and Norwich.”