Malky Mackay can't understand why Watford conceded early again in Norwich City draw

The Hornets have conceded in the opening three minutes of their last two games and gone behind in the first ten minutes in five of their last 14 fixtures.

“No I can’t [put my finger on why Watford have conceded early goals recently],” Mackay said, “because we work hard on looking at our mistakes from the week before, working on it in training, highlighting it, and the preparation for the games we have is second to none, the preparation from my staff is second to none.

“So it is something we were disappointed with but what I was delighted with was the character they showed to come back from that and go 2-1 up against a very good team.”

Watford went 1-0 down in the second minute last night but fought back to take a deserved 2-1 lead into the break, although Norwich City equalised in the second half.

When asked if a point was a fair result, Mackay replied: “I suppose you could look at it like that with chances for either side. We were playing against one of the top teams in the division and I think the neutrals will go away happy - it was a really open and entertaining game.

“I am disappointed that at 2-1 up we missed the open goal to go to 3-1. If we went 3-1 up then for me the game would be dead. I am also disappointed with some of the refereeing decisions.

“But overall, I have got to be really proud of them considering how well they started. We shot ourselves in the foot in the first minute but showed great courage and determination to come back from that and played some really good stuff in the first half.”

Watford had a golden chance to go 3-1 up in the second half when Danny Graham missed from four yards out and Mackay believes his side would have secured all three points if his striker had grabbed his 28th of the season.

Mackay said: “I felt that would have meant Norwich would have had to throw even more men forward and left them open to the counter even more and expose them even more, but it wasn’t to be.”