Gianfranco Zola praised Watford’s passion, heart and desire against Burnley and insists the performance will have taught his players the importance of hard work.

The Hornets were good value for their goalless draw at Turf Moor and the Watford boss hailed his team’s work ethic during the game.

“We played with a lot of passion, a lot of desire and a lot of heart – some things that some people have criticised and doubted about this team in the last few days,” Zola said after the match.

“Everything was in place today and the rest will come. We have the quality that will come out but without hard work you can have as much quality as you want, you won’t succeed and that is a good lesson for us to learn.”

When asked if the display showed the togetherness amongst his players, Zola said: “Absolutely. I said it in the beginning and in the last few days the team has grown up a lot in developing this kind of bond between each other which is essential to play any type of football.”

Watford were on the back foot for much of the first half and had goalkeeper Jonathan Bond to thank for making a number of smart saves to keep the score goalless.

After the interval however the game opened up and Lewis McGugan had two good chances to win it for the Hornets but one shot was cleared off the line and the other hit the side netting.

Zola however was pleased with a draw and in particular with the clean sheet.

“I am delighted with the result, I really am,” he said. “It was tough today and we knew it was going to be tough.

“We had to earn the right to play football today and we worked very hard in the first half and in the second half we played a little bit better and created some chances but I am delighted we kept a clean sheet which was important today.”

He added: “In the first half Burnley had a great chance when Jonathan Bond made a great save from Scott Arfield but in the second half we had two chances, big chances.

“I thought we were going to win the game because the players were getting better and better as the game went on.”