Just when you think Watford have turned a corner after a promising victory, they go and let you down again.

Saturday's game with Swansea was one where we simply had to take all three points. At home against the bottom of the league, nothing less than three points was good enough for the Hornets in my opinion.

However, the longer the scoreline remained 1-0, the more inevitable it became that Swansea were going to get their noses back in the game and that’s just how it panned out.

Watford just never seem to be able to win games by that score. We rarely ever seem to be able to replicate what Burnley do and close out a match and it’s always been the case. It would be impossible for me to really illustrate the amount of times I’ve seen teams score late equalisers or winners against us.

That familiar sinking feeling greeted us inside Vicarage Road as Jordan Ayew equalised in the 86th minute and then matters went from bad to worse when Luciano Narsingh converted the winner in injury time.

Watford were architypes of their own downfall once again. Having taken the lead through Andre Carrillo early on, you would have expected them to capitalise on their bright start and go on to win the game.

From the latter stages of the first half right the way through to full-time, Watford barely mustered an attempt at the Swansea goal. All we did was just sit deeper and deeper and concede possession needlessly on countless occasions.

Playing at home against the side bottom of the league who had just been beaten 5-0 by Liverpool days beforehand, this was such a negative approach. If we’d have continued to attack Swansea, just as we did against teams earlier this season, we would have won that game comfortably without a shadow of a doubt.

Yes, Molla Wague had a goal ruled out and Andre Gray squandered a great chance to put us 2-0 up, but aside from that, Watford barely created any other opportunities.

As we’ve seen on countless occasions this season, attack is the best form of defence for the Hornets. Against Chelsea, for example, the minute we went defensive by bringing on Ben Watson for Troy Deeney, we effectively handed the Premier League champions the three points. It was the same under Walter Mazzarri last season as well. Going defensive just never seems to work. We don’t have the individuals who can do that just yet.

People can criticise Andre Gray as much as they want as well, but at the end of the day, Watford’s naive defending has come back to haunt them again.

I feel a little sorry for Gray to be honest. It’s clear he’s lacking in confidence and he hasn’t got off to the best start at Vicarage Road. You can see he’s trying and as much as I can try to defend him, he really should be converting that chance. He does everything right in that position except for the finish, which is perhaps the most important thing for an £18million striker.

There’s an element of expectation on his head given the fee and everyone thought he was going to be our main man this season. Perhaps the fee is acting as a weight on his head?

Maybe that, and the fact he played for arch rivals Luton Town, is leading him to put himself under extra pressure to get the fans on his side. Maybe we’ll never know the true answer.

His miss has ultimately proven to be costly, as if you don’t take your chances at this level, then you will be punished. But equally, our inability to close out a game has also cost us again.

Questions have to be asked about our defending, but also our mind-set, as that is 16 points Watford have lost from winning positions this season. That is just unacceptable.  

It seems all teams have to do when facing Watford is stay in the game and they know they’ll get something. Swansea weren’t fantastic by any stretch of the imagination, but they knew they’d get an opportunity against us going into the last few minutes and they took both of them.

The same could be said about the games against Everton and Crystal Palace. Neither team caused us too many problems, yet both stayed in the game and capitalised on our naivety to gain all three points.

That’s what is frustrating at the moment. Teams aren’t having to work that hard to beat us. As soon as Watford concede a goal, more often than not they capitulate.

You could even throw in the first half against Manchester United. This is becoming a reoccurring theme and Marco Silva has to find a way of sorting it out.

Things have to change sharpish, otherwise this will be another season where all we can think of is what might have been.

Bradley Hayden is the founder and sole writer of @WatfordFCBlog.