Gianfranco Zola admitted he couldn’t see Wolves equalising and was left to lament his side’s failure to kill the game off before they conceded an injury-time equaliser in tonight’s 1-1 draw.

After Almen Abdi had given the Hornets the lead with a free-kick late in the first half, Ikechi Anya spurned a glorious opportunity to make the game safe when he failed to convert Marco Cassetti’s low cross from close range.

Fernando Forestieri also missed the target when well placed in the penalty area. But even after Bakary Sako had levelled three minutes into injury-time, Watford could still have made it win number 11 away on the road this season had Forestieri not sliced over from ten yards.

“It is disappointing because obviously I didn’t see it [the Wolves goal] coming,” said Zola. “We were in control of the game but I believe the difference wasn’t the goal conceded, the difference was the second goal we didn’t score and we had the opportunities to do that. We didn’t manage to convert those occasions and in the end it was that goal – it can happen, it’s part of football.

“We controlled the game better than we did in the last few matches. We dominated the possession and in key areas we were in control but we missed the conclusion. We had the opportunities and in the end we paid.”

The Hornets head coach told Sky Sports in his post-match interview that he ‘thought the game was won’. Asked about this, he responded: “We were controlling the set play situation quite well, something that could have been a problem because they kept putting a lot of bodies forward and in those circumstances it can happen, you can concede. Because of that, because we were controlling those situations well, I thought it was finished. I honestly didn’t see the last goal coming.

“But I repeat, we have to be more clinical when we have the opportunities because 1-0 away from home I believe most of the time is not enough.”