It would have been easy for Watford boss Quique Sanchez Flores to solely blame a refereeing decision for his side’s 1-0 defeat to Crystal Palace. Instead the Spaniard was gracious in defeat.

Yohan Cabaye’s second half penalty, awarded after Allan Nyom had brought down Wilfried Zaha on the edge of the area, proved the difference between the two sides at Vicarage Road this afternoon.

It is the first time the Hornets have tasted defeat at home since their return to the Premier League and Flores had no complaints with the final result.

He said: “I am not happy because it is the first time we haven’t taken points at Vicarage Road. But the match was very tough.

“We were unable to stop Crystal Palace’s counter attacks, we were not comfortable with the ball and we had a lot of difficulties to open the pitch. We didn’t have good feeling with the ball so it was a difficult match.”

Flores continued: “We didn’t make a good performance. I am satisfied with the performance in terms of the effort because we always tried our best, we tried to play well and create attempts. But sometimes it is impossible.

“In the first half I felt something wasn’t right in the defence. We had a lot of problems at right-back. Sometimes we were out of line and bad decisions were being made there.

“At half time we tried to change something. We wanted Nyom to keep his position a little bit more because we had problems on the right.

“The second half was a normal match until the penalty. After that we had to change a lot of things.

"The system wasn’t the same and we had new players, like Steven (Berghuis) and (Victor) Ibarbo, who were having to adapt to the discipline of the game.

“So it was a lot of pressure for the new players to go on the pitch. But we accept the result and Crystal Palace played really, really well. They closed down the space and did well on the counter attack.

“They have amazing players, skilful and quick. It wasn’t our best match so congratulations to Crystal Palace.”

Hornets full-back Nyom was convinced he brought down Zaha outside of the penalty area but subsequent television replays confirmed referee Anthony Taylor made the correct call.

Flores was asked his opinion on the decision after the game and was also questioned on whether Nyom made the wrong choice by going to ground.

The Spaniard said: “It’s difficult to know [if it was a penalty] because my position is so far away. It might be a weak penalty for England, no?

“But I don’t really know because I didn’t see a replay after the game and from my position it was difficult.”

He continued: “Players make decisions and you can’t tell what happened in the head of the players at that moment. You have to protect the players sometimes if they make mistakes.

“I can’t go into the dressing room and say bad things to Nyom. He has played amazing matches with us since the start of the season.

"We didn’t lose today because of Nyom. We didn’t play well and Crystal Palace were better than us.”

The defeat halted the momentum Watford had built up following victories against Swansea City and Newcastle United.

The Hornets have netted four times in three matches away from home this season but have only found the net once in four games at Vicarage Road.

Flores says his tactical structure doesn’t dramatically change if the Hornets are playing away from home and added: “We don’t change a lot of things if we are home or away. Sometimes if we score in the first half things change in the match. 

“The opponent can reduce the possibilities to score. Today Crystal Palace closed down (Troy) Deeney and (Odion) Ighalo which made it harder to get close to the goal.

“We tried to change the situation but I am not worried about the goals. We are a humble team who has to suffer for every single goal.

“Goals are very expensive and that is something the top teams pay a lot of money for.”