Leeds United manager Neil Redfearn conceded poor decisions were to blame for his side losing 3-2 this afternoon but did highlight ‘the millions’ of pounds Watford’s owner have spent on their squad as an important factor.

Leeds led 2-0 at Elland Road before Troy Deeney’s goal just before half-time and Matej Vydra’s double helped the Golden Boys move within three points of the top of the Championship.

Redfearn acknowledged: “You can’t afford to defend like that; that was the problem. I thought we were the better side for 40 minutes and got the game plan right; playing high up the pitch, forcing the errors and I thought we played some good stuff.

“It was 2-0 but it could have been 3-0 or 4-0 at that point. [But] they are a good side and if you give good sides room to play then they will hurt you.

“We talked about the need for the defenders to defend well when one-on-one at times because they play on the counter-attack and for the defenders to make good decisions. Today we made poor decisions.”

“We should have won [considering Leeds were winning 2-0] but they are a free-scoring side and they have done that one or two teams this season,” he added.

Watford have built an excellent squad for the second flight of English football whilst still balancing the books. They were able to do so because although they have spent very little on transfer fees, the close relationship between the other Pozzo-owned clubs Udinese and Granada has resulted in a number of high-quality players – some of which are full internationals – arriving at Vicarage Road.

Leeds on the other hand named four academy players in their starting XI today and Redfearn said: “It could have been 5-5 and if we looked back at Watford’s games a lot of them have been like that. I think they have scored 69 goals this season and are the highest scorers in the division, they are a free-scoring side and they have players who score goals but they have spent a lot of money and if you spend a lot of money then you get good players in who score goals.”

He added: “It is a fact we are short of players and it looked like we lacked Championship experience today but you have to remember that we have four players out of our academy in our starting XI whereas they have gone into the market and paid millions for players. There is a difference and it is a different ball park but I am not knocking what we are doing because to this point recently we have done well and have played well at times today. That will get masked because of the result and the manner of the result but we have played some good stuff and created a lot of chances and looked like scoring. But the disappointment is that we must defend better and individuals must make better decisions.”

Read a match report of today's game here.