When you are finding it hard to get the better of a visiting team, the luxury of having an excellent home record can sometimes lead to almost blasé expectations.

Tom Cleverley felt that was a positive sign in terms of the progression his team have made and the trajectory they are on after the 1-0 win over Bristol City.

“I like the fact that our expectations are rising and everyone is thinking ‘why are Bristol City coming here and dominating the ball’,” he said.

“We have to give opponents respect. They are a good team.

“Before tonight they were 10th in the league, and I don’t think they had lost away from home since September.

“We were playing against a very, very strong away side, who showed their quality.

“I thought they were very efficient in their rotations and very well coached.

“We’ve had to win the dirty way today.”

There was nothing dirty about the winning goal though – Ryan Andrews’ shot was as clean as they come.

“It was a great strike,” smiled Cleverley.

“We’ve challenged our wing-backs to be more productive in the final third this season, and I’m not sure what the numbers are but we’ve had Larouci with an assist on Friday and Andrews with the winner tonight.

“They are certainly taking the attacking information on board and carrying it out perfectly.”

Imran Louza was outstanding again, quickly finding the form from a couple of seasons ago that many feared had deserted him.

“When I played with him he weren’t a bad player!” joked Cleverley.

“He has certainly got something that we don’t have in there, which is a calmness under pressure.

“There is almost a little bit of arrogance in order to get us on the ball and trying to get some rhythm in the game.

“Amongst the madness and a few unforced errors, he was the guy who was clean and classy in there.”

Watford defended what they had with a good degree of confidence in the last 15 minutes, although they could have been undone again by a wonder striker when Scott Twine hit the bar.

“I felt more relaxed today in the structure and organisation, and in the mindset of the players in the closing stages,” said Cleverley.

“But Twine has got technique like no-one I’ve ever seen.

“When he hits a ball and the way he makes it dip – it was an incredible strike.”

Fortune did go Watford’s way when Francisco Sierralta – already on a yellow card – handled the ball just outside his own box but the officials appeared to be the only people who didn’t see it.

“I’ll have to watch the incident back, but it was one of those where I felt Sierralta only had one more foul in him.

“I thought James Morris came on and did his job excellently.”