Amid the disappointment of suffering a first defeat of the season at Sheffield United, Watford head coach Tom Cleverley said he wanted to make sure the progress made so far this term isn’t forgotten.

From being tipped for relegation before a ball was kicked to going into the first international break third in the Championship table is quite a step forward.

And Cleverley particularly focussed on how drawing a blank at Bramall Lane should not detract from the great goalscoring start the Hornets have made.

“We’re talking about a lack of creativity today, but we’re a team that has just scored 15 in five games,” he said.

“I want our standards to be high, I want the inquests to be thorough – but let’s not forget where we’ve come from.

“Of course, when you lose players like Asprilla and Kone, and then Giorgi doesn’t have his most productive day, it is time for other players to stand up.

“But Kayembe has got three goals in the league this season, Bayo scored a wonder strike last week, so I think it would be a bit harsh for me to start pointing fingers.”

One thing Cleverley didn’t have any argument about was the home side being worthy winners.

“It wasn’t like the game at Southampton at the end of last season where you ended feeling massively hard done by,” he said.

“I think today we can accept that result.

“We can have a debrief and put reasons down as to why we weren’t the better team today, and we will analyse that.

“But I don’t think we can have any complaints, especially after the second half.

“I said to the players afterwards, though, that although we weren’t at our best, especially in the second half, you could see how much the result meant to Sheffield United.

“That paid us a lot of respect and it shows how far we’ve come in a short space of time.”

The game ended with a number of hefty challenges and player confrontations.

“They were managing the game very well and that was frustrating for us, and there were a couple of heavy tackles,” said the Watford boss.

“But if you take a bit of needle out of the game then I don’t think you’d be pleasing many fans.

“I think it was an entertaining game of football that probably boiled over a little bit too much.

“But for me it was nothing that overstepped the mark.”