Fans who attended Saturday’s friendly with Brentford may have hoped to catch a glimpse of summer signing Rocco Vata.

The youngster, who moved from Celtic, was absent at Wycombe in midweek and although he was on the bench at Vicarage Road, he didn’t get onto the pitch.

“He suffered an illness for about seven days which took it out of him,” explained Tom Cleverley.

“Today was the first game of the pre-season where the result really mattered to me and the players.

“While Rocco is still learning his out of possession responsibilities, I went for Incey, who is a bit more experienced to see the game out.

“Rocco looks a really big potential and it’s my job to sort of get the dark arts of the game and the out of possession responsibilities into his game because we all know how important they are in our league.”

It wasn’t a surprise that Wes Hoedt wasn’t involved, given the knee injury he sustained in the Wycombe game which saw him limp off before half-time.

“Wes tells me he’s a quick healer,” Cleverley said, with a smile.

“So we’re hoping that it’s not too long because he’s important to us.

“It’s a knee issue and it’s hopefully weeks rather than months, and I’m told by Wes himself that he is a quick healer.”

The Brentford game came too soon for loan signing Yasser Larouci, but the Watford head coach was clearly very happy to have the former Liverpool wing-back on board.

“I’m really happy with that one,” he said.

“When you play this system you like to have numbers in those wide areas - it’s a demanding system and a demanding position.

“From one training session I saw his qualities. It’s one we’re really pleased to do.”

• Jack Grieves made his Scottish Premiership debut for Ross County, as they drew 0-0 at Motherwell on Saturday.

He had claimed an assist in his first appearance a week earlier as County beat Stirling Albion 3-0 in the Scottish League Cup.

• Goalkeeper Myles Roberts kept a clean sheet on his debut for Partick Thistle as they drew 0-0 with Morton in the Scottish Championship on Saturday.