It may have been a couple of yards further out than his usual predatory striking distance, but once again Mileta Rajovic was in the right place at the right time just when Watford needed him to be on Saturday.

The way he moved to make space and attack Yaser Asprilla’s left-wing cross at the near post showed he is more than a tap-in merchant, and his header to equalise was his ninth goal in 24 appearances, only 13 of which have been as a starter.

Indeed, he is averaging a goal every 142 minutes since joining the Hornets.

As Valerien Ismael discussed with the Watford Observer last week, the way the Hornets play means the No.9 is required to offer more than simply putting the ball in the onion bag.

But Rajovic also played a key part in Watford’s winner, taking control of the ball on the right, holding it up and then supplying Jorge Hurtado, who in turn slipped in scorer Tom Dele-Bashiru.

“We know that Rajovic is a goalscorer,” said Ismael.

“He has two things that we expect from a No.9: the first is to score goals and the second is to hold the ball.

“I think we still need to have a lot of work with him, but he’s already shown his quality in English football in the box.

“We are looking forward to working with him, to help him improve because he really can score goals in this league.”

Dele-Bashiru scored the first goal of the Ismael reign after little more than 30 seconds on the opening day against QPR, and his finish for the winner against Chesterfield showed the touch and vision of someone who is at home in and around the box.

“This is our way to play, and if you look at our record you’ll see our No.8s score a lot of goals,” said Ismael.

“It’s the way we do it, to put our No.8 in those positions in the box so they have opportunities.

“He finished the goal well and he made a great game today again.

“He is helping us at the minute to bridge the gap in the right-back position. We knew at the beginning it would take time but he improving week after week.

“He gives us calm in the build-up and he gives us options, and also it is a chance for us to give recovery to Ryan Andrews.

“Ryan is a different profile, a pace player, and when you play every three days with that pace then it can be dangerous for the player.

“I am very grateful that Tom took the job and tried to help the team, and finally he got the reward with an excellent game and the winning goal.”

Ismael spoke at length about Colombian Under-20 international forward Hurtado with the Watford Observer on Friday, and suggested then fans may well see their first glimpse of him against Chesterfield after he had returned from his loan spell with New York Red Bulls in the MLS.

“There is a lot of work to do with him,” the Watford boss admitted.

“You can clearly see the potential but it’s a case of finding the rhythm and adapting to our intensity.

“We clearly see the quality but we also see clearly that we have big work to do with him.”

Now the question is whether Watford keeper Hurtado with them and develop him with the first-team squad, or seek another loan for him.

“I think we will assess him, it’s too early now to say,” Ismael admitted.

“Today’s game will help us, and now with my staff we will analyse the performance closely to try and understand more.

“We’ll also see him in training sessions, and now we are only playing at weekends for a while we’ll have a full week of sessions with the players to go back and work on our intensity and principals.

“From there we’ll get more of a feeling, and then at the end we can take a decision what is the best for us and for the player.”