Hornets captain Troy Deeney says Watford can have no excuses if they fail to secure promotion to the Premier League this season.

Deeney signed a new four-year contract with Watford on Wednesday and has set his sights on scoring the goals to help the club reach the top flight – something he believes could make him a Hornets legend.

The Golden Boys agonisingly missed out on promotion twice during the 2012/13 campaign but struggled last season and ended 13th in the Championship table.

Watford have made a bright start in the league this season, winning three of their opening four matches, and Deeney says they must continue that form.

He said: “What we’ve been saying since the first day back on June 23 is just keep the excuses to a minimum.

“The owners have done it with the training facilities. With what we’ve got here, there’s no reason anyone can complain.

“Also, as players now, we’ve just got to make sure we deliver on a Saturday afternoon, a Tuesday night or whichever day of the week we are playing.

“We can repay the faith of the owners who've splashed a lot of money on this and given everybody nice contracts, we have to repay that faith.”

He continued: “My big thing as captain is no excuses. We go away to Rotherham on a Tuesday night, that’s no excuse not to play well because we’re not in front of our own fans and we’ve had to travel up there.

“That’s nonsense and everybody else has done it; Leicester did, Burnley did and Cardiff did the year before that.

“We’ve got to go somewhere and win 1-0 ugly. We didn’t play a great game against Rotherham but we got a 2-0 victory and it was a great feeling on the way back.”

Deeney was made club captain this summer and has embraced the role, although he admits there is now more pressure on him.

The striker has always been a strong personality in the dressing room and says he remains a vocal figure.

However, with the likes of experienced players such as Heurelho Gomes, Gabriel Tamas, Keith Andrews, Daniel Tozser and Lloyd Dyer also in the dressing room, Deeney admits it makes his job easier.

He explained: “They’re not just experienced pros, we’ve had experienced pros before, we have leaders in the group and it sort of makes my job a little bit easier.

“I’m trying to gee people up instead of having to be harsh on them. When people are not doing their job, I can go to Heurelho and say ‘We need to get into him’ or, if we need to get into someone, he can be the good cop and I can be the bad cop or vice-versa.

“We haven’t really had to do that as of yet but we’ve had a chat about it just in case it needs to be.

“We’ve just talked more in terms of discipline around the place and fines and stuff like that. We want everything to be no excuses.”

Deeney will take to the field tomorrow against Huddersfield Town looking to equal Tommy Mooney on 63 goals for the Hornets.

He is one short of the former Watford striker and admits he is looking forward to equalling and then surpassing that total.

Deeney described Mooney as "a legend to me" after the pair played together at Walsall and they remain good friends.

He said: “He (Mooney) has been top-drawer to be fair; he keeps telling me he used to play at the back and that he was defending for a few games. But I’ve not seen him play right-wing for a hundred games, so we’ve both got arguments as to why we haven’t scored as much as we wanted to.”

He continued: “If I can go and score 20 goals again this season, then I think I become the first player to do that in three consecutive seasons. So if I do make it that’s a bit of legendary status, shall we say.

“I won’t say that it would never happen again – but it might take a long, long time and I could be etched in the record books.”

Deeney has been reunited with Matej Vydra this season. During the 2012/13 campaign the duo formed a strong strike partnership, but the Czech Republic international has struggled so far this season.

However, Deeney quizzed "are we really questioning Vydra after four games" and is confident Vydra will rediscover his best form.

He said: “You’ve got to remember, he didn’t play well all the time the first year he came. Last time I said that, people thought I was being jealous or something but I’m just stating facts; he did not play well all the time two years ago.

“He’ll be cool though and the good thing is he wants to get back in the team. Then we’ve got Fernando Forestieri whose playing well. It’s only going to create good rivalry.”

The Hornets have assembled their strongest squad since the Pozzo takeover. Everything has been geared towards reaching the Premier League this season and Deeney admits it is vital to make Vicarage Road a fortress.

“I think if you’re Huddersfield on Saturday and you see Ikechi Anya, Lloyd Dyer, Vydra, Deeney, Forestieri, (Almen) Abdi and (Lewis) McGugan, you’re a**e is going to be twitching a little bit,” he said.

“The fans have been great and I keep mentioning them but the 1881 movement, they’re doing really well.

“They’re starting to grow as well and that could be a big thing if you get two or three hundred people who are singing all the time.

"You might get people who tell them to shut up and watch the game but for us as players it’s really good that we can interact with the fans, that’s going to be a big part of my captaincy.

"When we are struggling at little bit, and we need the fans’ backing, I'll  be chasing down a lost cause or winning a tackle or whatever. 

"Hopefully it will be goals but those little things will be help when it’s a bit flat. Hopefully we don’t have to do that and we’ll win every game." 

Read Deeney's comments regarding his potential departure and new contract here.