Head coach Valerien Ismael heralded the patience of the Watford fans as being a contributory factor in yesterday’s late, late show victory over Birmingham.

The clock had already ticked past more than five hours since the Hornets had last found the net in front of their own supporters when Mileta Rajovic broke the deadlock in the first minute of stoppage time.

Since going 4-0 up on the opening day against QPR, Watford had registered 64 goals attempts at Vicarage Road without any joy - until that memorable moment yesterday.

“I was pleased with the attitude of our fans today. They were patient,” said Ismael.

“When you are in a process as we are, they can feel something is happening on the pitch, but I know that at other places when it’s 0-0 with 10 minutes to play and the ball is not around the box then whistling starts. There will be impatience around the crowd.

“But today I felt that our fans understood the way we try to play and they were patient.

“I’m just pleased that everyone got the reward today for that patience.

“The sooner we can score goals the better it will be for us to open the game, and open the defence.

“When it’s not happening it’s very helpful from our fans to stay patient with the players.”

The head coach said he felt the game was clearly impacted by the late sending off of Birmingham’s Lee Buchanan.

“I think our destiny changed with the red card. For sure we made changes, but at some points like that you just feel like today is our day,” he said.

“At that moment we realised we had to force the game and we did that.

“It was a typical game when a team hasn’t been winning. We had confidence, but not the sort of confidence when you are winning games with consistency.

“You start to mistakes, the opponents get a chance, and then after that you are more careful.

“After half an hour we came into the game and we played the way we wanted to play, we played our game.

“At half time I said to the guys we needed to step up and we needed to force the game. We knew that the bench would have an impact. We were aware of that, we would need everyone.

“In the second half I thought we managed the game well. In one situation we were lucky, but there we had Dan and we know that at any time he is able to make a save. He had an impact on the game.

“At the end we deserved it. The game shows again the picture we start to get in the Championship, how teams play against us – especially at home, because Blackburn was the same.”

Ismael admitted he felt it was about time his team, and their supporters, were able to celebrate getting the result their performance deserved.

“There have been many games already where we have deserved more reward. At some point you can get frustrated but this is football. It is the beauty of the game.

“It was good for the players. Believe me, they work hard. In the international break the players still here did not have a lot of time off, and we work all the time on our principals so that we get the rewards and to make sure we believe in what we are doing.

“Every win we can get now will cement everything, and create that momentum we need to start winning with consistency.”