Injuries have restricted Tom Dele-Bashiru to just 13 Watford appearances since he joined from Manchester City in summer 2019.

Given a starting place by Valerien Ismael on Saturday, the midfielder needed a mere 34 seconds to make his mark and open the scoring against QPR.

He revealed he knew to make his run because seven weeks of pre-season work had taught him what was coming.

“We have our patterns of play and as I saw the ball going to Bayo I knew he was going to set Imrân, so I just made my run and Imrân’s got the quality so it was a good goal,” he said.

“It’s a great feeling, I’ve had a difficult time here with injuries so it’s a good feeling to score my first league goal.

“We’ve been working hard in pre-season and the manager has come in and really changed the mentality here. We’ve got a good group ethic going on so to score so early was a great feeling.

“We’ve learned really quickly. Pre-season was long and there was a lot of information to take in, but the boys have really bought into it and we’ve adapted well and as you can see, the patterns are coming out as well.”

• Another of Saturday’s goalscorers, Vakoun Bayo, talked through his strike after the game.

“I saw Francisco Sierralta, he got the ball in space, so I just followed him and he passed to me and I scored,” said the striker.

“I was very, very happy for him also. His position is new, but he did very well.

“I feel very good, happy to be back and to score because I’m hungry to show something and scoring is the best way to show something.”

• New club captain Dan Bachmann had barely finished putting his gloves back on after shaking hands with the referee when Watford went ahead against QPR.

“The start we made was incredible: to go 1-0 up so quickly was amazing,” he said.

“It was a lovely team goal as well. You could see everything we’re trying to do within the first 35 seconds of the match.

“I think the first half was very good. In the second half certain things got a bit sloppy, and there are things we need to iron out, but mistakes are going to happen.

“Going forward, we just need to iron out those mistakes. The way we’re playing is always going to come with risks, but we’ll only get better.

“We’re playing with a new philosophy, which is going to take time to implement, but you could see what we’re trying to do and we’re very happy.

“I think you could see that we’re a team today, and aside from the result that’s the most pleasing thing. We know what we’ve been asked to do and everyone’s going into the game with a plan, knowing what we expect of ourselves and of each other.”