Nottingham Forest manager Dougie Freedman believes his side would have beaten Watford had they had a striker of the calibre of Hornets captain Troy Deeney.

Forest created a host of chances throughout the 90 minutes but only managed the one goal; mainly due to the excellent goalkeeping of Heurelho Gomes.

Watford, on the other hand, scored three times through Odion Ighalo, Matthew Connolly and Almen Abdi to secure the 3-1 win and move back up to third, with only goal difference keeping them out of the automatic promotion places.

Forest are without injured strikers Britt Assombalonga, Matty Fryatt and Dexter Blackstock and Freedman, who started with 19-year-old Arsenal loanee Chuba Akpom up front, said: “Give me Troy Deeney and it is a different game, as simple as that.

“Guys there is not a lot in it (winning football matches); you have seen this game and lots of other games. You are not fools.

“I’m an honest guy; we had the chances, their keeper made the saves, our spirit was there and our energy was there and we kept going against a fantastic team. In the end the difference was they were more ruthless. They took their three chances.”

Watford led 2-0 at half-time despite Forest being more than a match for the Golden Boys.

Forest were reduced to ten men with more than half an hour remaining. Freedman said he initially thought the decision to send off Kelvin Wilson was wrong and believed a sense of injustice fired up his players but in his press conference accepted referee Paul Tierney got it right after watching a replay. The Scot said he had yet to see if Ighalo should also have been dismissed for a kick-out.

The Reds are not fighting for promotion or relegation but they still showed a togetherness and spirit which Freedman believes gives him something to build on.

Freedman, who has signed a new two-year contract at the City Ground, added: “Listen let’s not dress this up; I’m very disappointed with the result today. But the spirit, the commitment and the energy levels we showed deserved something out of the game and the difference was the quality of their finishing because we certainly had opportunities.

“Their goalkeeper was the man-of-the-match and made three or four fantastic saves so all-in-all I think if the game was based on chances and effort then we would have got something out of the game. But you see the difference tonight. They are a fantastic team and the difference was the ability to put the ball in the back of the net.”

Read a match report from tonight’s game here.