Watford ended this year with a win and they will look to start 2013 in identical fashion when they face Charlton Athletic at Vicarage Road tomorrow as they seek to further strengthen their grip on a top-six place.

The Hornets will go into the game without Fitz Hall, who sustained a hamstring injury towards the end of the first half of Saturday’s 3-1 victory at Brighton & Hove Albion.

Speaking this lunchtime, head coach Gianfranco Zola said: “It’s not as bad as we thought it could be. It will keep him out for maybe a couple of weeks, we don’t know yet.”

Apart from Lloyd Doyley, who is still working his way back to match fitness following his injury lay-off, Zola has a fully fit squad to choose from and also has Marco Cassetti available again after he missed the Seagulls win through suspension.

However, the Hornets boss says he has yet to decide whether to make changes for his side’s first home game of the new year.

“I don’t know to be honest,” he replied when asked if he would alter his team. “It is an option I have, I don’t know whether I’m going to use it or not. I will decide tomorrow.”

Chris Powell’s outfit come to Vicarage Road on the back of a six-game winless run but Zola is not reading too much into that sequence.

“I don’t trust those results,” he said. “This Championship is always very tricky so it’s not necessarily a good thing they haven’t won in the last six. I know they will be focused, they will cause us problems so we will have to be at our best if we want to win.

“We want to start the new year in the same good shape because, as we said the other day, if we want to consolidate the position that we have achieved we need to keep taking advantage of the home games and winning them.”