Head Coach Slaven Bilić expressed his frustration following Watford’s 2-0 defeat at Middlesbrough, explaining that basic errors were largely to blame for a result that brought his team’s three-game unbeaten league run to an end.
First-half goals from Chuba Akpom and Marcus Forss - following an open start to the game – ultimately earned the Teessiders the spoils at the Riverside Stadium, with Matheus Martins going close for the Hornets when the clash was still goalless.
A series of substitutions at the start and during the second 45 helped ignite a handful of chances for the visitors – with debutant Henrique Araújo and fellow attacker Tobi Adeyemo both threatening – but Boro ultimately held on for all three points.
“It wasn’t good enough, and I feel angry with our performance,” said Bilić, 54. “I couldn’t wait for this game to start. We had everything - we’d picked up seven points from our last three games, so we had confidence, we had pace up front and on the flanks, we had the ability to defend and attack – and when we did things correctly we worked our way into good situations.
“But when you do the basic things wrong it’s hard to get anything out of the game. We were sloppy and made too many unforced errors. It was nothing to do with the quality we had within the team, it was about us not being focused enough and it’s simply not good enough.”
Former Croatia boss Bilić praised Middlesbrough for their performance, and their overall improvement since the appointment of Michael Carrick as Head Coach in October, but insisted he and his team had to take sole responsibility for the outcome of the clash at the Riverside.
He continued: “We knew before we travelled that they are a good team, and that they’ve improved a lot since Michael came in. We set up with a three at the back because of how they play with two 10s, and we saw that we could pin them back and stretch them when we had the ball.
“But we didn’t have the finishing touch when we got into good positions, and then we gifted them so many situations. That means it’s only a matter of time, and then we let in the two goals, so it’s down to us.”
Victory for Boro lifted them above Watford, who now sit fourth in the Sky Bet Championship table after 29 games, and 13 points behind Sheffield United in the second automatic promotion place, with the Blades having played one match fewer.
Bilić admitted that rather than holding hope of catching the top two, for now he is focused on picking up as many points as possible to avoid being caught in the play-off positions.
He added: “We have to be realistic, and based on this performance we have to get back to winning ways and fight the teams around us.
“I’m not talking about my team and my players in general – this is just one 90 minutes – so we will go again at Reading next week and we will try to cut out all the sloppy things we did here today.”
