One great cross, one great header. It all sounds so simple when you say it like that.

But Watford’s fans and players had sat through more than five hours of frustration at Vicarage Road between the fourth goal against QPR on the opening day of the season and Mileta Rajovic heading home Yaser Asprilla’s cross in the first minute of stoppage time against Birmingham on Saturday.

“Finally that cross came. We put ourselves in a lot of situations like that but the cross quality was not there,” admitted head coach Valerien Ismael.

“It was the quality of cross we needed and Rajovic was in the right position, exactly where the No.9 is needed to score goals.

“I am pleased for Yaser. We work a lot and speak a lot with him. We can see that he has something special and is a key player, but so far I think he has been missing the outcome.

“How many goals, how many assists? At some point it is just entertainment, and today he combined with the cross that entertainment and also an outcome.

“We need more to make sure that his numbers match his quality.”

It could have been a very different outcome had keeper Daniel Bachmann not made a superb double save shortly before Rajovic scored.

“This is why a goalkeeper gets paid, to make saves,” smiled the head coach.

“He doesn’t get paid to make the build-up from the back, but we are working with him on the next level. It’s as simple as that.

“We have worked together for four months now, and he has his old habits but we need to continue to work with him because it is worth it.

“I know that in the process I need to expect mistakes. It is a part of what we need to go through, and you have to go through that process so that in the end we are able to step up.

“When you win, that helps you to implement the method.”

Ismael made a similar comment when asked about Rajovic’s opener, but also provided some insight into how the striker came to be at Vicarage Road.

“It was a difficult game for him but at the end of the day, it’s like Dan. Dan gets paid to make saves, and Rajovic gets paid to score goals. That’s what counts,” said the Watford boss.

“He was exactly where he needs to be to score goals.

“We know exactly what we need to play that position, and we had a clear profile of the player.

“When we went to the market on one side it was easy because we knew exactly what we wanted, but on the other side it’s not that easy because the person has to be in the brackets of what we want.

“We worked closely with the board and we had a lot of names on the list, but the profile was clear.

“The club understood the profile I needed in that position, but it also had to fit the needs of the club, to create an asset for the club.

“It is always the balance we need to find between myself being happy and the club being happy.

“When I saw the first clips of Rajovic, I got straight away the feeling that this is the one we need. And the club thought that as well. It’s a great feeling when we agree like that.

“We knew with Rajovic straight away that he was the right type of player and he would fit the Championship and fit our game.

“He also fits our flexibility. If we cannot come through then we have to come around with crosses.”

It has been a great couple of weeks for Academy product Ryan Andrews, with a call up to the England Under-20 training camp and then scoring the second goal against Birmingham, his first for the club.

“I’d have to say finally again!” the head coach remarked with a grin.

“I think we have put him into that position to cross or to shoot many times. Finally he got the breakthrough.

“We forced our destiny and I hope the guys now get that confidence.

“Today was more important that we got a win which cemented our work so far.

“We believe, from the board to the players, we are very close and all together. But you have to win games, otherwise you repeat yourself and repeat yourself.

“I said it on Friday in the press conference. We want to get more points in this block of games before the next international break.”

Striker Vakoun Bayo was not on the bench, and the Watford head coach explained why.

“He has a slight muscle issue. On Thursday it came to light, and he trained on Friday but he was still feeling it.

“We had this game and then another on Wednesday, so it was not a time to take any risks.

“He should be available for Wednesday because he feels better and had a training session where everything was fine.

“I would expect him to be back for Wednesday.”