The rollercoaster that has been Watford’s last few weeks peaked against this afternoon, and Tom Cleverley praised his side for staying united after the slump at Preston in midweek.

The Hornets have beaten both Middlesbrough and Sunderland in the space of seven days, two teams likely to be in the promotion shake-up, but in between lost to Preston who were in the bottom three going into that game on Wednesday.

They badly needed to respond after the defeat at Deepdale, and Cleverley was clearly delighted with what he saw in the 2-1 victory at Vicarage Road.

“I’m so pleased for the lads to get that result, and so proud of them,” he beamed.

“They stuck together after Wednesday when it would have been easy to start pointing fingers.

“I think the quality of the opposition we were playing today, to compete against that in the way we did was a top-six performance.

“You know you’re going to suffer some periods without the ball against Middlesbrough who, for me, are one of – if not the best – teams in possession.

“They have such good quality and they are so well coached.

“We had to show a lot of patience and discipline to stay in the game, and then our substitutes made the impact to win the game.

“To me that was a perfect way to respond to Wednesday, which was probably our poorest performance of the season, and we’ve showed our credentials today.”

The Hornets set up from the start in a way that anticipated the visitors having a lot of the ball.

“We knew we had to be solid because they are a team that loves to attack you through the middle of the pitch,” said Cleverley.

“With the two midfielders and the two No.10s, they like to attack you through the middle.

“If you lose discipline once then they go through you like a hot knife through butter.

“So it’s about 95-minute focus which is tough on the legs, and I thought the players executed our game plan perfectly.

“We don’t want to be a counter-attack team but, as we showed at Man City, if we have to be then we have the tools to do it."