Watford goalkeeper Heurelho Gomes showed character his colleagues had sadly lacked in their 2-0 loss at Burnley as he took the step of apologising to fans for the club's "embarrassing" performance.

The Brazilian was one of few players to come out of the game at Turf Moor with any credit, having pulled off a number of smart saves and at times engaged in an aerial tussle for the ball with Clarets striker Sam Vokes.

Afterwards, a clearly frustrated Gomes apologised to the 1,415 Hornets who made the 250-mile round trip from Watford on a cold, wet Monday night, where they were subjected to easily the club's worst performance of the season.

"We just didn't show up," he said. "Of course Burnley deserve credit for the win. We just didn’t show up and play the way we played the last few games.

"The only thing that I can say is to apologise to the fans that came all the way from Watford to support us and they didn’t deserve to see the way we played today."

Burnley's five-man midfield, a change from their normal 4-4-2 line-up, needed guile to unlock, in quantities Watford never looked like possessing on the night.

In addition, the hosts' high pressing proved too much for the Hornets to deal with, as they looked rushed in possession throughout and could not even muster a chance of note before the break.

Gomes added: "We couldn't control ball or pass the ball and them we invite them to press us and I think it was as simple as that.

"We knew that from the first moment that they were going to press us, they did the same against Liverpool who conceded this way.

"They tried to press us and we couldn’t control it. I don’t know what’s happened, but, yeah, it’s embarrassing.

In a few days we need to show up. We know our qualities and we must get back to showing them on Saturday."