Tom Cleverley spoke to the media after the Hornets conceded in the 99th minute to lose 3-2 away at Southampton, despite initially recovering from a two-goal deficit.
Read what he had to say below...
On the performance:
It is a really difficult one to take. Even though I didn’t think we were at our best in possession today, we’ve managed to create a whole host of chances, we have shown real character against a top team, away from home. We were 2-0 down which we don’t plan on doing all the time, but it's the first time we have been behind in my stint as manager.
We have showed real character to come back, it feels like a really, really bitter pill to swallow that we have come out with no points, and we are feeling really hard done by in there.
On the slow start:
I won’t give the players any excuses for that. They were out of the blocks quicker than us, we changed the system and I was worried straight away after that [the first goal] went in, but it took us a little bit of time to start putting pressure on them in the high press. We had a couple of successful ones and they started becoming nervous, and we only really got to grips when we went 2-0 down.
We got to grips with the game, we started creating chances, good chances, and then came strong. We showed good belief second half and some good stuff in patches. I need to see more consistency and desire to control the possession of the game, but I admit that is not easy to do at the best possession team in the league.
On Southampton's approach in the second half:
It is a nervy position they are in. It is still in their hands to get promoted. The weather, the midweek game, you never know why they were flat second half, credit to us, we really drove forward.
I thought James Morris was excellent when he came on, and again, it becomes hard for a coach when you are still taking so many positives out of the game, but we are not winning games, so I need to keep installing that belief, and sooner or later this run of results will come to an end with a home win.
On his substitutions:
I’ve been worried with Tom Dele-Bashiru having burn out since I’ve been in charge. He has played every minute of every game for five games in 16 days, and he just unfortunately got a little Achilles flare-up, and he just burned out a little bit today, so that one was forced.
The three young lads came on to really give us energy, that’s what I wanted and needed, and we were getting in good crossing positions without finding that killer ball. I thought James Morris, his quality in the final third was brilliant, Matheus Martins gave us good impetus, and [Ismaël] Koné popped up with a goal so I'm really pleased with how the substitutes made a difference in a positive way for us today.
On his record as Interim Head Coach:
We don’t deal in draws, we want wins, and maybe we are a little too eager to go on and score the winner at 2-2. But the main objectives we have are win the next game, and create a real belief we can have a promotion push next year. We’ve failed in the first on five out of six occasions, but we have definitely achieved the second bit.
On the character of the players:
I can’t question the character at all, nobody can question the character of the players in the six games. It will be easy for people on the outside to say "Watford have got nothing to play for". We looked like the team desperate to win second half, we looked like the team pushing for promotion, and that is a big, big character tick.
