Injuries bit deep into the squad for the first time on Saturday
The last 11 months have seen Tom Cleverley accelerate through a series of ‘firsts’ in his fledgling career as a head coach.
On Saturday at Coventry, he had his first experience of feeling the effects of a pile-up of injuries all at the same time.
Kwadwo Baah, Festy Ebosele and Dan Bachmann are all sidelined for a longer period, Imran Louza missed the game and Kevin Keben’s return to action was delayed by a small setback last week.
Watford went into the season with a fairly thin squad, but take five out of it and you're heading towards threadbare.
Kwadwo Baah is out for a couple of months (Image: PA) “It’s the first time this season I could complain that the squad looks thin,” said Cleverley.
“I don’t want to be crying about it or making excuses because I think we just fell short today.
“But obviously we’re bringing Mamadou on who is new to it all, we’ve had Amin on the bench and Leo Ramirez-Espain travelled up.
“It’s great for the Academy boys and young players getting a chance, but maybe it’s sooner than we expected.
“We expected Rocco to take a little longer process to be someone we really rely on for goals now.
“He’s done excellent though, but it’s been accelerated.
“Mamadou was another one for maybe further down the line but injuries mean that’s accelerated.
“Amin and Leo would maybe in the first-team squad next season but that’s been moved forward.
“Obviously every manager is going to say they need depth in the market, but it does give others a chance and I thought Doumbia was excellent.
“He looked lively, he held the ball up well and he showed some neat touches with an appetite to run in behind.
“I was really pleased with his cameo.”
Having got to the half-hour mark at 0-0, Watford conceded a goal to Coventry that would have been easy to avoid.
“That goal disappointed me,” admitted Cleverley.
“I thought we had enough players to stop the cross at source, and then enough in the box to defend a bit tighter than we did.
“So the first goal disappoints me, the second goal I’ve not seen back but it seemed very harsh to give a free-kick for handball.
“It felt like the referee blew his whistle before it even happened.
“I think we gave Coventry too much territory in the first half, too many corners and we’re going through a feeling-out process at the start of games.
“At this level you just can’t do that.”
The second goal came at just the wrong time too, with the Hornets looking to work their way back into the game.
“There’s never a good time to concede but if you’ve got a bit of forward momentum then it certainly takes the sting out of that,” said the head coach.
“What I must give the players credit for is they never gave up. They never do.
“They always keep going to the end and showed good mentality to never throw the towel in.
“We could have nicked something at the end.”
