Both Tom Dele-Bashiru and Daniel Jebbison come back into contention for Watford’s home game with Middlesbrough tomorrow, their third game in three days and one where team changes are even more likely now.

Having been soundly beaten 3-0 and given a particularly poor performance at Preston on Wednesday, head coach Tom Cleverley said he would look to freshen things up even more than would have been the case at the end of a run of three games in a week.

“It was always in the physical plan for changes in the third game in seven days, especially coming two days after the game on Wednesday night and a long journey,” he explained.

“There were always going to be changes – but when you have a performance like that it forces me to make changes as well.”

There are no fresh concerns after the match at Deepdale, and the pair that missed out through injury are now fit again.

“Physically everyone has responded well. Obviously mentally we need to respond and react,” said Cleverley.

“Everyone that was fit for Wednesday is still ok.

“Ngakia has rejoined the group for training, but tomorrow’s game will be a little bit early for him.

“This game might come too soon for Bachmann as well, but both Dele-Bashiru and Jebbison are back and available.”

With Thursday being a recovery day, it will only be today that the Hornets boss gets all his players back together on the training pitch and can start to see how they act after their midweek humbling.

“I didn’t really get to train with the players yesterday, so I’ll see how they react in more detail today,” he said.

“The lads who weren’t involved in the game trained really well yesterday.

“They are pushing to stake a claim in the starting XI.

“I feel like we have a good environment here, and we have reacted well to poor performances, or those which aren’t of our usual standard, well so far.

“I fully expect that to be the same tomorrow and that is the kind of environment that we have.

“We find solutions and not excuses, and we don’t point fingers at people.

“No, what we do is knuckle down and sort it out, and that is what I fully expect.”

Did Cleverley feel let down by his players in Wednesday’s defeat?

“I don’t point fingers at the players, I try to see what I did in my job and why we didn’t play as well as we know we can,” he replied.

“The thing I’m most disappointed about is we showed no authority to take control of the game in the first half.

“We showed no ambition to prove that we’re a top team and that we want to be fighting at the business end of the table.

“The first half annoyed me just as much as the half where we conceded three goals.

“I’m not tagging us as a team with no ambition, but we need to identify that when there is a game which we can take by the scruff of the neck, then we do so.

“We need to play without fear, we need to take risks. That is what top teams do.”