Watford Ladies boss John Salomon felt he saw the fight which has been lacking from his side’s performances in Wednesday’s 4-2 FA Continental Tyres Cup loss at home to Millwall Lionesses.

The loss was their ninth on the spin and followed a 5-0 humbling against Women’s Super League 2 leaders Doncaster Rovers Belles on Sunday.

Ashlee Hincks and Fliss Gibbons had fired the Lionesses into a 2-0 lead by half-time before Dionne Lennon added a third for the visitors.

Not to be deterred, Watford hit back through Anneka Nuttall and Stacie Donnelly before Rinsola Babajide wrapped up the win late on.

An upbeat Salomon commented: “The players deserved more tonight. That was a team performance and there’s a lot of positives that we can take from the game.’

“Tonight we saw the fight, the passion, the desire and the belief from the players that has been lacking lately and that is what we need to build on now.’’

Midfielder Donnelly added: “It was end-to-end, a good game, and we battled our hearts out. It was a shame we couldn’t get the result but we’ll pick ourselves up and go again.

“We’ve got a lot of positives to take from that match. We just don’t have much luck at the moment, but we’re building slowly and getting there, and have a lot to take from the second half in particular.

“WSL 2 hasn’t gone well so we were hoping for a change of luck. We’re working hard, we want to get off the bottom of the table and progress in the future.”