Watford manager Malky Mackay claims fans are now starting to notice all the “little things” Don Cowie does for his team and said he tells young players coming through to try and emulate the midfielder.

Cowie returned after three weeks out last Tuesday and despite finding it hard to recover in time for Saturday, put in an excellent shift for the Hornets against Reading.

Mackay said: “I think I said this the last time Don was out the team, you look at when he is not playing and you see the difference. He is invaluable to our football club.

“He is clever on the ball, in terms of keeping possession, but his work rate is incredible and all the little things he does for the team, people are starting to notice them now.

“He is a top pro for our football club and he is a leader for our club, a quiet leader, but one of the players people see the way he plays and the way he acts around the training ground.

“He is one of the players I ask the young players at the club to look at and follow.”

Cowie, who had spells at Ross County and Inverness CT before joining Watford, may have provided more going forward in the past but his defensive work was crucial for Watford at Reading.

The young Hornets full backs, Adam Thompson and Lee Hodson, were constantly showing Jobi McAnuff and Jimmy Kebe inside at the weekend where Cowie and Stephen McGinn helped ‘double up’ against the wingers.

When asked if that was a pre-set plan, Mackay replied: “Yes it was, the fact we played Stephen and Don just to the side of John Eustace, with Matty whichelow in front, it was to make them play in field a little bit to play to our strengths, so to speak.

“That then lends itself to when we did win the ball back, we could go straight through the middle at them and in the first half that showed a couple of times.”