FITNESS COACH John Goodman warned Ray Lewington he might see a reaction to a very hard Thursday training ground work-out and, sure enough, it was a case of heavy legs leading to tired minds for our lads today as they were beaten 2-1 by a well-organised Colchester United at Layer Road.

All three goals came before the break, the two for the Essex side in the space of two minutes. Alec Chamberlain will be disappointed with his decision-making on 18 minutes, a little late in deciding to attempt a save to a cross-shot from the left. His parry fell for Craig Fagan who slotted home from an acute angle.

A couple of minutes later, ex-Hornet Wayne Andrews' cross from the right flank was adjudged to have been deliberately handled by Paul Mayo and Fagan tucked home the resultant spot-kick.

Watford halved the deficit on 27 minutes when Danny Webber made most of hesitation in clearing from Colchester summer transfer target Wayne Brown. The striker sped towards the near post, near enough to commit the keeper, then rolled the ball between the wonderfully-named Dean Gerken and the near post to finish a neatly-taken solo effort.

Once again, the boss opted to give most of the players 90 minutes work but, with a Reserve team match at Boreham Wood happening simultaneously, may have wished he'd had more substitutes at his disposal in the searing July heat. 

"Yes it was hot but I didn't think that could excuse what was a pretty poor show in both halves," said Ray after the game. "John warned me we might see a reaction from Thursday's session. The match is a means to an end and our focus is on hard work in training right now.

"That said, there's certain things about the game I didn't like. The communication was poor and whether it was heavy legs affecting their thinking I don't know. We can do much better than that and have done in previous pre-season matches so I'm keen not to excuse the players certain things which should be forming into good habits by now.

"We looked tired and there wasn't too much to get out of today other than match fitness which, as I've talked about before, is that bit different to working really hard in training and getting yourself fit off the field of play. You can do all the training in the world yet, come a game, the players still feel knackered. Pre-season's about getting fit enough to last you all year and that's where our priority lies.

"Of course we're working towards two weeks' time and saw some good and bad things today. We'll have those ironed out by the time the season starts so let's not read too much into today."

Watford: Chamberlain; Doyley, Dyche, Cox, Mayo (Smith 68); Devlin, Gunnarsson, Mahon (Hand 57), Ardley (Young 57); Dyer (Bouazza 68), Webber. Sub not used: Hitchcock (GK).

+ Meanwhile, Nigel Gibbs' Reserves hit five for the second consecutive pre-season game, this time at Meadow Park against Boreham Wood. We'll have more from that game on Monday but the scorers in a 5-1 win were trialists Omari Coleman (3), Adam Howarth and Scott Fitzgerald.