Tom Cleverley said the Watford fans can take a lot of the credit for the 2-1 win over Derby County.

It was the fourth consecutive victory of the season but had to be done the hard way as Cleverley found himself trailing at Vicarage Road for the first time as a coach when the visitors scored after only two minutes.

“It was another character check for us, and I thought our fans were excellent because they stayed patient,” he said.

“It wasn’t a great start because the worst thing you can do against a team who saw out their win against Middlesbrough so valiantly last weekend is give them an early lead.

“But I thought the players stayed patient too, and we showed some real quality to break them down.

“There is more than one way to win in this league, we know that. I think we have shown three different types already.”

County’s early goal caught the Hornets napping from a throw-in initially, and again when the ball was pulled back across their box.

“The organisation from their throw-in wasn’t good enough,” Cleverley admitted.

“They had three against two and got the ball into our box, and it’s a good goal for them.

“But there are certainly things we can address.”

Once the visitors had their noses in front, they more than happy to get all 11 players behind the ball inside their own half.

“I thought the way the game went after they scored was the way it would go even if it had stayed 0-0,” said the Watford boss.

“They are a good counter-attack team but they do let you have spells of possession and dominance, and even more so when they go a goal ahead.

“I didn’t think we were as productive as we were last week with our possession.

“We can learn a lot from today.

“I thought we stopped the counter-attack, in the main, pretty well. That was a big part of our game plan.

“We knew they’d be low in the pitch, we knew they had a threat on the counter attack and I felt we stopped it quite well.

“I think teams will start to come here and respect us. We’ve had a few unbeaten here and a few wins on the trot, and when you’re on an unbeaten run then you start getting a bit of a reputation.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if more teams come here and show us that bit of respect.”

Although they enjoyed 65% possession and spent long periods inside the Derby half, Watford only produced 12 goal attempts, of which just three hit the target.

“You have days like that you know,” Cleverley conceded.

“It was one of those days where we’d string three or four passes together and then someone would misplace one.

“Even if we were misplacing it to one of our own team, it was going the wrong side of them, and we were just losing momentum in attack.

“So there was a little bit of one of those days about it, but going back to the supporters they stayed with us and stayed positive. They can take a lot of credit for that win.”