Less than two miles from Home Park is the suburb of Mutley.

Heading away from the stadium last night its name popped up on a road sign, and although it is spelt differently, it instantly evoked memories of the cartoon dog who was the sidekick of Dick Dastardly – both in their own shows and as part of the excellent Wacky Races.

Driving past that sign, the sound of Muttley expressing frustration at another failed plot by his master with his trademark “Snazza frazza rashin' fashin'” came to mind.

Clearly you need to be of a certain age to remember that snarly, grizzly noise the dog made as he vocalised the pain of coming so near, yet so far.

(Or you can see and hear it if you click here!)

Seeing Mutley and then hearing Muttley provided a perfect summary for Watford and their fans as they headed back home, with more than 200 miles and some four hours to reflect on two points that undoubtedly got away.

Quite simply, Watford should have won this one and, while the heroics of a certain ex-Hornet will undoubtedly grab the headlines, it was their own shortcomings in front of goal that really cost them.

The first 45 minutes was the best opening half away from home this season.

Watford were pressing high and energetically from the off, pinged the ball around with a confident crispness in possession and worked hard to force the home side to look flustered and uncomfortable.

The early goal was well deserved, and came via a superb cross from Yasser Larouci, who curled the ball perfectly for the incoming Vakoun Bayo.

The striker has scored seven in his last five games for club and country, and he timed his run perfectly to meet Larouci’s pass.

Sliding in, his leading foot turned the ball onto his other leg, into his groin and then he followed the ball over the line.

An unusual way to score from close range, but the sort of goals strikers should be scoring.

For the next quarter of an hour, the Hornets pulled Plymouth all over the place and seemed likely to add a second.

Once again Giorgi Chakvetadze was outstanding. There was tangible nervousness in the home stands when he turned and ran at their defence, and the Georgian’s ball carrying was as impressive as ever.

Behind him, Imran Louza has most definitely returned to form. Watford fans have seen what he can do in the past, and an on-song and committed Louza is a real asset.

He was pulling the strings from deep, happy to take the ball in tight situations and flipping between the simple give-and-go passes and the more elaborate, eye-catching deliveries.

As pundits so often say, teams need to score while they are on top or else, as happened last night, there is the danger of being punished.

That it was Gray who did it, and in the manner he did, was almost something that could have been predicted with a nervous laugh before the game.

When he strode onto the high, arcing crossfield pass, the Watford fans behind the goal may have been fearing for their faces as the Gray they had watched so many times would almost certainly have shanked his shot deep among them.

Not last might.

Instead he made the difficult look simple as he struck the dipping ball to perfection, combining control, power and accuracy to send it fizzing towards the bottom far corner.

As one Watford fan wrote last night, there are definitely 50 shades of Gray – that was one, the other 49 were what he displayed to the Hornets.

The equaliser did give Argyle a shot in the arm for a while, but Watford quickly resumed control and should have regained the lead when Ryan Porteous controlled a loose ball at a corner before rolling it wide from seven yards.

It was a poor miss but the Scottish defender more than redeemed himself soon after when he found the net to make it 2-1.

It was a goal that looked like it came straight off the training ground – a free-kick that every other team seems to score against Watford while we mutter, Muttley-esque, ‘why can’t our lot do something like that’.

This time, it was the Hornets pulling off a set-piece goal though.

Louza lobbed a measured pass into space on the right of the box where big Mattie Pollock had peeled off and surged to meet it, turning it invitingly across the six-yard box.

Bayo had made the initial run but the ball’s path was behind him and instead was met by Porteous, who stretched to poke it home.

Leading at half-time was no more than Watford deserved.

The home side made some tweaks in the second half, most notably to close down more quickly and while the Hornets looked the more likely side to score, it was a more even 45 minutes.

Plymouth mustered barely any more than they did before the break though, and it needed a fine double-handed tip over from Grimshaw to deny Chakvedtadze from 20 yards.

Possibly the defining moment of the second half came when Bayo did exceptionally well to win and then hold onto the ball inside his own half under the challenge of two players.

It allowed Moussa Sissoko to surge through the centre of the pitch and towards the box. Bayo made a magnificent run to catch up, going past a Plymouth player to run onto the return pass inside the area.

His left foot isn’t his strongest and given the position he was in, shooting first time might have been better.

However, he took a touch and saw Grimshaw save with his legs, although a sliding defender behind the keeper may well have blocked had the ball got there.

Had Bayo scored, Watford would have won – but to blame him for the draw would be churlish.

Yes he should have done better with the chance, but watch the moment back and give him credit for the way he holds the ball up and then sprints to be in the box.

The Ivory Coast international had a very good game overall and while his reaction to missing the chance – the Sky cameras captured him face down slapping the pitch – showed he knew it was a game-changer, Bayo is having one of his best spells since joining the Hornets.

And if the failure to win a game they definitely should have won leaves fans looking to point fingers, then have a good watch back at the equaliser.

There are as several ‘should have done better there’ moments in 12 seconds from the moment the ball is thrown in to when it hits the net – and that doesn’t include Edo Kayembe declining the chance to hammer the ball down the pitch to safety before conceding the throw.

When the ball is lobbed towards the box, Louza heads it up in the air. Mumba is then able to head it back towards the area unchallenged, and Randell is allowed to nod it on further without any pressure applied.

Gyabi holds off Francisco Sierralta too easily, allowing him to turn and slip a pass to Bundu, who simply steps away from Pollock and nudges the ball left to Gray.

The striker is just inside the corner of the box five minutes into stoppage time with a single-goal lead to protect, yet he has time and space to take a touch and then send a curling effort past Bachmann and inside the back post.

While Tom Cleverley quite rightly focussed on the failure to kill the game off as the reason Watford didn’t win, there are enough avoidable moments in that one passage of defensive play to turn Paul Robinson even more grey than he is already.

Some fans suggested Bachmann should have done better. The press box afforded excellent views of both Gray’s goals – the first was unexpectedly accurate and it would have been very difficult for the Watford keeper to get to it, and he had no chance at all for the second one.

The ball was net-bound as soon as it left Gray’s foot, but rather than attempting to chastise the keeper – and accepting this is a painful thing to do – we must doff our caps to the striker for executing a peach of a strike.

It was reminiscent of the way West Brom salvaged a point towards the end of last season. They go in sometimes, and when they do there’s little a keeper can do about it.

Gray played 125 times for Watford and only once – a 2-0 win over Wycombe at Vicarage Road in March 2021 – did he score twice.

Moments before the equaliser he showed the other side of his personal coin, meeting a deep cross with a header which ended with the ball going further away from goal.

Gray scored a goal every five games for Watford: through his entire career he has netted at a rate of better than one in three.

Last night, possibly spurred on by playing against the club at which he had his most barren spell and with the songs from the away end extremely audible, he produced two goals out of the top drawer.

On the plus side, this was another step forward on the road, far more akin to Millwall and Sheffield Wednesday than Luton and Preston.

Watford will play worse and take three points at some point during the rest of the season and to be disappointed at not winning at a club who have only lost once at home is a sign of further progress.

Plymouth have beaten Sunderland and Blackburn at Home Park, and it is their awful away form which sees them sitting below halfway.

So while the ending and home hero made it painful, this was an evening which overall offered much encouragement and means the Hornets could still be in the top six at the end of the weekend.

Nonetheless, it was definitely a Muttley moment.