Tom Cleverley wouldn’t be alone in not understanding how Kwadwo Baah’s first-half strike at the Etihad tonight was disallowed by referee Mr Webb.

The Watford head coach shook his head when asked for his thoughts on the 21st-minute incident which saw the striker surge into the box, simply outmuscle Manchester City’s 16-year-old debutant defender Kaden Braithwaite, and then smash an angled shot past keeper Stefan Ortega.

None of the City players near the incident appealed, and yet the official decided Baah had knocked the youngster over.

“For me that’s a perfectly good goal,” reasoned Cleverley.

“The dynamic is a strong and explosive player against a young lad, and it can maybe look over aggressive but it’s actually shoulder to shoulder.

“It’s disappointing but after the controversy at the weekend you don’t expect to get those ones.”

Was it the sort of goal that would have been awarded at the other end of the pitch?

“No comment on that one,” replied the Hornets boss.

“All I’ll say is I think a perfectly good goal has been disallowed.

“I’m disappointed for Kwadwo as this would have been a big stage for him to score such a decent goal on.

“I’ve watched it back a couple of times and it’s disappointing.”

It was the fifth time in six games that Watford have conceded inside five minutes, and on this occasion it was a gift from the Hornets defence to a City side who have only failed to score six times at the Etihad since the start of the 2020/21 season.

“As a coach there’s not much you can do about giving the ball away in such an easy circumstance,” Cleverley reflected.

“And then you sort of fear the worst after that, but it’s not something I want to focus on this evening.

“The objective was to be more resilient after the game at the weekend where it was too easy for us to be broken down at the back.

“The players needed to respond to that, and we showed backbone, although not in the first five minutes.

“After that we showed real resilience and valued the art of defending today.

“We can take belief that we pushed the best team in the world all the way.”