Run ends but Watford's start has still been so positive

So it proved on Sunday at Bramall Lane: still there’s nobody alive that has seen Watford win their first six games of a season as the 100% start ended, as the last time they managed it was in 1903.

Because the 1-0 defeat at Sheffield United came before the international break there is more time than usual to carry out an autopsy, but while that is always a good thing to do after any game it’s important to keep a sense of perspective.

In this two-week hiatus in Championship fixtures, rather than dwell on what was a disappointing afternoon in South Yorkshire have a look at the league table and remember there are 21 other teams that have made a worse start than the Hornets.

A few junctions up the M1 our old friends can spend the next fortnight mulling over one point from 12, and so while seeing our old head coach Chris Wilder whipping the crowd up just before and after the final whistle on Sunday wasn’t great, that one defeat in isolation shouldn’t detract from the overall picture.

Nine points from four league games and eight goals scored.

There was nothing about the 23/24 campaign, pre-season performances or transfer business (until the final week or so) that suggested Watford would make such a start.

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So credit to Tom Cleverley and his staff for achieving results and performances that must have been a pleasant surprise to even the most positively myopic of positive fans.

And, while we haven’t seen too much of some of the new signings yet, a nod in the direction of the club for clearly supporting the young head coach by bringing in players of the profile and type he needed.

Eleven players through the door (or 12 and maybe even 13 if you count Mamadou Doumbia and the ‘loaned back’ Vakoun Bayo), about £3m invested and experience combined with plenty of exciting potential.

Eight of the 11 new faces are aged 23 and under. Clearly Cleverley is trusted to take the potential and mould that into good players.

Of course, the club have also trousered some £30m in revenue from sales, but we have known all along that’s how they work and if doing so keeps the wolf from the door and starts to help the owner recoup some of his debt  . . . well, that’s a good thing, no?

Again, looking at the finances in Bedfordshire, they have spent less than they’ve made this summer, and yet they also have the obvious advantage of parachute money.

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Having had a quick look at the numbers, it appears less than half of clubs in the Championship have spent more than they’ve brought in – and most of those that did only paid out a little more than they received.

The financial realities of not being in the top-flight bite everywhere, not just at Watford.

Allowing Mileta Rajovic to move to Brondby on loan represents a degree of risk, although if he is third (or even fourth) choice then there is little sense in having him watching from the stands.

There is a recall option though, so the fact Rajovic has gone feels less of an issue than the fact both our two first-choice strikers (Jebbison and Bayo) aren’t actually owned by WFC.

Nonetheless, even with the loss in Sheffield, this has been a start that goes well into the positive scale.

Cleverley and his staff will have plenty of meat on the bone to pick at when they look back at Sunday’s game, though.

It was, in theory and actuality, the toughest test so far and while the Hornets didn’t fail by much, there was no doubt the result was the right one.

If I were looking for a positive take on the defeat, for me it would be that the result hinged more on Watford’s own shortcomings and errors than it did on how the Blades performed.

It wasn’t that the Hornets played to their best and still fell short: they under-performed against the marker they have set so far, and had they managed to deliver as they did in their previous league games then things may have been different.

United are a good side, and will surely be in the mix at the top end of the table.

Wilder has had to absorb 16 players either being sold, released or go back to their parent club, and yet has worked the transfer window well enough to assemble a squad that looks to be a good fit for the challenges of the Championship.

Jesurun Rak-Sakyi looks a real talent, and could turn out to be one of the loans of the season. Kieffer Moore is proven at this level, getting Callum O’Hare on a free is excellent business and not losing Anel Ahmedhodzic is almost as good as signing a good player.

It’s a powerful, talented squad that will be cheered on by one of the loudest sets of home fans in a stadium that is never easy to play in.

And yet they looked decidedly nervous in the closing stages despite Watford offering no real threat, and celebrated at the final whistle as if it was a win over the likes of Leeds or neighbours Wednesday.

It was maybe a little nod, from United, that Watford are held in quite high regard. Perhaps beating the Hornets is not the ‘pipe and slippers’ job it was last season.

What was frustrating is the manner in which Watford dealt with the key moments in the game, and particularly the only goal.

A long clearance from the keeper shouldn’t result in Rak-Sakyi having time to turn inside to make a comfortable pass into the box.

O’Hare had no-one near him when he ran onto it, and then Francisco Sierralta attempted to chase and challenge him while holding his own hands behind his back, which meant the United midfielder was able to skip to the by-line and head towards the goal.

Sierralta eventually made some contact and O’Hare may have had penalty claims, but that didn’t matter as he prodded the ball across the six-yard box and it cannoned off the hip of Bachmann as he spread himself and bobbled into the net.

A properly ugly and highly avoidable goal to concede and, while the keeper suffers the ignominy of an own goal, the real problems came in the seconds before the ball hit him.

At that point, Watford were shaky and somewhat disorganised.

Every time Rak-Sakyi got the ball he seemed able to do as he pleased, and the Hornets midfield was a distant second best as United appeared to have more energy and verve.

However, that early goal and its repercussions should have been neutered after 13 minutes.

While Bayo’s goal against Derby last week was a touch of class, strikers cannot live off bicycle kicks. They have to score the bread-and-butter goals and this was one such opportunity.

Mattie Pollock’s vision and execution to play the ball behind the United back line was superb, and Bayo was a yard goal-side of the giant Harry Souttar, who wasn’t making ground.

Keeper Michael Cooper had rushed off his line and so by the time Bayo got to the edge of the D, the Sheffield stopper was a good 16 yards out.

The ball was bouncing, the goal was empty and I’ll admit I thought Bayo would simply lift his effort over the keeper and into the net.

However, the forward sort of hopped as he tried his lob, it came off his boot at the wrong angle and actually exited the pitch wide of the six-yard box.

It was pivotal. Score that and it takes the wind out of Sheffield sails, while boosting Watford confidence.

Kwadwo Baah in the thick of a post-match scuffle. (Image: PA)

It could have been worse. When Moore broke down the left there seemed little threat but as he squared the ball Ollie Arblaster ran past Moussa Sissoko to reach it and his appearance just inside the box sucked in Yasser Larouci for a sliding tackle that he was never going to win.

My first view screamed obvious penalty, and it was no surprise that referee Mr Kitchen gave it. However, replays showed Larouci made no contact, and instead Arblaster dragged his trailing foot across the Watford player’s shin and then went to ground.

Not one that VAR would have overturned, though not as blatant as it looked – but if Watford were a shade unlucky there then they got it back (and some) when Sissoko grabbed O’Hare’s ankle as the pair slid off the pitch on the stroke of half-time.

Moore’s penalty was a good one, struck low and towards the corner, but Bachmann made a top-class save to push it round the post. The Austrian made a couple more very good stops after that as well.

As the game wore on, Watford looked less and less likely to salvage anything.

They often seemed impatient in possession, wanting to force things to happen that simply weren’t on.

Giorgi Chakvetadze was well shackled by the home side, and Edo Kayembe had a frustrating game where he only really came alive when he got the ball around the 18-yard box.

When the Georgian can’t deliver the goods, there needs to be alternative ways to break through and for the first time so far this season Kayembe did not look like providing it.

It’s too early to make any kind of judgment on Jebbison given he came into a game that was heading the wrong way, and had to deal with a crowd that booed his every movement and a set of former teammates who tried to provoke him.

One player who doesn’t need much provoking is Kwadwo Baah. He’s shown he has the power and pace to be a threat at this level, but now he needs to calm down a little and not go looking for confrontation.

He’s usually the first yellow shirt to arrive at the scene of a scuffle and, sooner or later, his tendency to want to touch noses with any opponent who wrongs him, or his flailing arm wafted in the direction of a challenge as he tries to break is going to cost him dearly.

All in all it was a disappointing, frustrating, ‘one that got away’ sort of afternoon, but a defeat where you were left feeling that Watford fell short of their own standards rather than being totally outclassed.

If the game at Bramall Lane had been the first of the season, and Watford proceeded to win their next three – rather than the other way round – we’d probably feel very differently today.