Watford opened their pre-season campaign with a 1-0 win at SK Austria Klagenfurt this evening.

The only goal of the game came in the 26th minute when a fine pass from Sean Murray put new signing Lloyd Dyer through one-on-one and he duly beat the Klagenfurt keeper.

All five of Watford’s summer arrivals to date were named in the starting line-up and, perhaps significantly, there was a change in formation to 4-3-3 from the 3-5-2 that has been used for the majority of the past two seasons.

With Heurelho Gomes in goal, there was a new Hornets central defensive partnership as Gabriel Tamas and Craig Cathcart lined up together, while the returning Matej Vydra and Lloyd Dyer were either side of Mathias Ranegie in a front three.

Lewis McGugan and Vydra had opportunities before Dyer netted what turned out to be the only goal of the match when Murray released the former Leicester City winger on the angle and he made the most his chance.

Former Tottenham Hotspur keeper Gomes was called into his first serious involvement five minutes after the interval, making a good save after a Klagenfurt corner had deflected off the legs of Daniel Pudil.

Murray curled an effort narrowly over soon after before Pudil, now playing on the left of midfield, released his fellow Czech Vydra in another one-on-one opening, but he was denied by the home side's keeper.

A good Hornets 'debut' by Gomes ended with 11 minutes to go when he made way for 16-year-old Academy stopper Nathan Gartside as Watford continued to press for a second goal in the closing stages.

Watford: Gomes (Gartside 79); Brown (Doyley 46), Tamas (Hoban 46), Cathcart (Ekstrand 46), Pudil; Battocchio, Murray (Doherty 71), McGugan (Smith 56); Vydra (O'Nien 79), Ranegie (Fabbrini 46), Dyer (Jakubiak 64).