Watford boss Slavisa Jokanovic’s team selection against Wigan Athletic may have surprised many but the Hornets head coach knew exactly what he was doing.

“We arrived here with respect for Wigan,” he explained. “We didn’t know what we would find on the pitch. We started the game slowly and waited for something to happen.

The first half was 50/50, they could have scored from a free-kick while we didn’t attack with all our offensive players - we can’t attack with only two players.”

The game was goalless at the interval as both sides struggled to create chances on a poor pitch.

Jokanovic decided to bring on forward Fernando Forestieri at half time in place of wing-back Marco Motta and switch from a 3-5-2 formation to a 4-3-1-2 system. 

It proved the correct change.

The Hornets broke the deadlock when Troy Deeney powered a header into the corner and then a penalty was awarded when Emerson Boyce brought down Forestieri.

Deeney stepped up and hammered his spot kick past Wigan goalkeeper Ali Al-Habsi.

Jokanovic explained his half-time switch after the match, he said: “I tried to organise the team and start with stronger, taller defenders.

“But we didn’t find many problems during the first 45 minutes so we pushed up and tried to find the victory.

“We played more offensively with more combinations in attack and we scored the goal.

“This pitch doesn’t benefit us or benefit Wigan though. It is very difficult to play football on that field.”

Jokanovic continued: “[After half time] we decided to start playing football, decided to attack and decided to play with more offensive players.

“Then my team played the better football and scored the goal. We had a problem after scoring but that is normal, however, in that period we could have scored more.

“We got the second goal late in the game and I believe my team deserved that win.”

You can read a match report from tonight's game here.