Watford manager Sean Dyche described his side’s showing against Tottenham Hotspur as “a performance which has a future” and believes Spurs “picked their pockets.”

Premier League side Tottenham beat Watford 1-0 last night despite being on the back foot for much of the contest, with Hornets creating 25 chances to Spurs’ six.

Rafael Van der Vaart’s long range shot just before half time was enough for the under-performing Spurs, although Watford goalkeeper Scott Loach should have saved the strike.

Dyche said: “They have some real quality and if they have a chance to pick your pocket then they will do. Their quality didn’t show at times tonight and I would like to think that is because we didn’t give it a chance to.”

He continued: “I thought we were good value for sure and you work hard to try to bring the rewards of the performance and we certainly did but credit to them, they found the way to win and sometimes that is what you have to do.”

Watford have been disappointing in recent weeks but were outstanding last night.

Whilst Dyche said he would have preferred an ugly performance and victory, the Hornets boss believes the showing provides confidence moving forward.

He said: “I am pleased with the performance and we talk a lot about performance levels. My assistant Ian Woan has a saying – you need a future in your performances and there is certainly a future in that performance.

“You have to nick games now and again but that was a really good performance and of course we are disappointed not to get something from the game. I think we deserved the minimum of a replay and possibly we could have taken it.

“There were lots of positives to take from the game. There is a great work ethic within the group no matter who plays and in the bigger picture of the club, there were six players who started tonight that are academy products.

“That is important for our club especially in testing times when finances are hard to come by. We believe in our academy and our young players and they had a taste of it tonight.”