AIDY Boothroyd wished his side could have started the game as well as they came back into it at the City Ground today, after his Watford team lost out in a five-goal thriller in the East Midlands.

A slow start for the Golden Boys meant the home side were on top thanks to a beauty of a strike from loanee Lee Martin, with Rob Earnshaw and Nathan Tyson adding further goals to make the final score 3-2.

Two fantastic replies from Tommy Smith, in another excellent performance from the current player of the year, meant the Hornets were always fighting.

A free kick from Earnshaw was followed in by substitute Tyson to win the game and hand the promoted new boys all three points.

Boothroyd said: "After being excellent as a defensive unit and as a team with three clean sheets, we got a rude awakening and that's what you get in the Championship.

"We didn't start at all well, we managed to claw our way back in twice and then gone and got done with a fundamental - a player following in a free kick.

"Unfortunately we come away with no points but scoring two goals away from home you would at least expect to get a point or ideally a win."

The home side played one natural striker in Earnshaw but plenty of rotation and movement meant the 'Orns were left chasing the game at times with surge after surge of attacks.

The Watford boss added: "Looking at the game I think we gave ourselves too much to do - you've got to give credit to Forest but at times I thought we made it too easy for them.

"We gave them the ball in silly areas, we made poor decisions in our passing and we got punished for it.

"They played three strikers, with two of them wide players coming in off the line to finish as a three, and they had three midfield players rotating."

The manager was forced into an early substitution during the first half when Jobi McAnuff limped off with an ankle injury. The early prognosis is that it is just a turned ankle.

He was replaced by local boy Will Hoskins and then with the Hornets trying to force an equaliser the Yorkshire man sent on attacking midfielder Damien Francis and front man Tamas Priskin.

It was a bold move but one the gaffer wasn't afraid to make. He added: "I honestly believed that there was a chance towards the end.

"If you're bold and you go for it you can get back into games but you've got to make sure that you keep the back door closed.

"This time last year we played a Leicester team who gave us a lesson because we weren't up for the game, this time I don't think we could do anymore in terms of preparation."

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