Lack of maturity at both ends of the pitch prevented Watford from taking more than a point at Ashton said Valerien Ismael, but he went home feeling it was a good point.

The head coach saw his side go ahead through their first penalty in more than a year, but they couldn’t establish dominance after that by conceding a very avoidable equaliser.

“It was another solid away game from us. I think we were strong, tactically very good and we pressed well,” said Ismael.

“We scored the goal and our intent in the first half was really good, and we had two big chances with Yaser Asprilla to go in front before half time.

“In the second half I thought it was the case that we have such good young players in the squad, and we have improved a lot this season, and now we have to get that next step which is maturity in decision making.”

Although they regularly made threatening breaks in the second 45 minutes, they only mustered one attempt on target.

“We put ourselves in good situations all the time, but the last pass, the cross, it was hectic,” said Ismael.

“We’re in a period of the season now where it’s all about winning games, and so you have to be more mature in some decision making.”

The Watford boss saw similarities between the home and away games against City.

“We’ve played Bristol twice: we conceded four goals at home, today we gave away another goal and in the second half we gave away corners.

“I thought today was similar to the home game. In that game we made mistakes and got punished with three goals – today we made one mistake and got punished with one goal.

“Ben Hamer made two big saves for us and Jake Livermore cleared off the line.

“We made it unnecessarily difficult for ourselves but on the other hand it’s the next step to help the players to get that maturity so that in our decision making we become more ruthless.”

Does the repeated reference to needing maturity mean that any business Watford do this month will see older players coming in?

“No it doesn’t mean that we need maturity like that, it’s that we need to work with our young players,” Ismael explained.

“We are very happy with our young players, they have improved a lot but the next step is to talk to them about maturity in the game.

“Every game is a chance to be better in that respect.

“But with the Rhys Healey transfer we now have the possibility to go on the market and we will do some business.

“That’s clear. We are working behind the scenes and now we still have enough time to do our job.”