Another year and another new boss for Lloyd Doyley to impress – well three on this occasion.

Doyley is in his 13th full season as a professional and on Tuesday night he made his 400th start, becoming just the ninth player in Watford’s history to do so.

One-club men are becoming increasingly uncommon in modern-day football and time will tell if Doyley remains one of them. With the Pozzos signing 47 different players in just over two years at the club, retaining your place seems to be an increasingly difficult prospect.

Doyley has made just three league starts this season and six appearances in all competitions. But the defender, who is 32 in December, is not concerned heading, once again, into the final year of his contract.

He said: “If I play well and I do well then the contract will come. I don’t worry about things like that. I have been a pro for a long time now and all I need to do is train well every day and show I am worthy of being in this team. That is what I am doing.”

The Jamaica international is not the most technically-gifted player but he is seemingly a rare commodity these days; he is a full-back who is an accomplished defender.

As possession-based football became increasingly relevant and full-backs were expected to attack, Doyley often found himself out of the team when new managers arrived at Vicarage Road.

But his superb attitude and defensive ability always resulted in a recall. Only a fool would bet against him doing it again under Slavisa Jokanovic.

Doyley said: “It has been a little bit difficult this year because we have a good squad here and we have had some good players come in.

“I have not made as many appearances as I would have liked but I feel when I have played, I have done myself justice and all I can do is play well. It is down to the boss to then pick me or whoever. At the end of the day, we are a squad and we want to get promoted this year. We are on target.”

Watford were top of the Championship heading into Tuesday night’s match with Birmingham City, who are in the relegation zone.

But it was Gary Rowett’s first home game in charge of Birmingham and the St Andrew’s crowd and the Blues players were revitalised – having won just one home fixture in 13 months under Lee Clark.

Birmingham’s players appeared to want it more than their Hornets counterparts and Doyley acknowledged that might have been the case.

Doyley added: “We have had to deal with it three times this season by having three different managers and every player wants to show the manager they are good players and they fight a little bit more – which they (the Birmingham players) did.

“With Birmingham being at home and the crowd getting on top, it may have affected us but we came here knowing what type of game it would be and we did plan to get a good result.”

Doyley was one of five changes to the Golden Boys’ starting XI on Tuesday night.

The line-up resulted in some supporters highlighting the ill-fated team selection of Gianfranco Zola at Bristol City in January 2013, when his side lost 2-0 to the Championship’s basement club after the head coach made six changes.

Doyley was asked if Jokanovic’s decision to make five alterations to his team was a risky strategy, prior to the Serbian subsequently explaining that only Doyley’s inclusion over Daniel Pudil was not enforced due to injury or fitness.

Doyley replied: “I can remember a couple of years ago, we made changes every three or four games and we usually won every [subsequent] game.

“It is risky in the sense the team have been doing so well but we have a good squad here and every player on the bench expects to play every week and when you get a chance it is down to you to prove you rightly deserve to be in the starting XI.”

Birmingham’s winner came when Clayton Donaldson was left completely unmarked six yards from goal.

Defending crosses into their penalty area seems to have been an Achilles heel for Watford in recent times but Doyley disagrees.

He said: “I think we have done quite well [at defending balls into the box] this season actually. We are third in the league and I don’t think we are struggling too much.

“They have to get goals from somewhere; either from inside the box, outside the box, corners or crosses. There has to be a way they get goals.

“I think it (the winning goal) was a lack of concentration in the last ten minutes. We didn’t see where the man was and he was free. As a defensive unit, we should have done a little bit better.”