Sometimes in football you just have to accept you were beaten by the better side.

That proved to be the case for Watford on Saturday as they were overpowered by Manchester United’s wealth of talent at Old Trafford in the Premier League.

Given the multi-millions that United have spent in the summer, as well as their manager and the players they have at their disposal, the Red Devils are a much stronger team than Watford and there’s no shame in admitting that.

As a result, Saturday’s game was always going to be tricky, especially as it was being played at Old Trafford, and there’s absolutely no disgrace in losing to the Red Devils, given they haven’t lost in the league since October.

The fact of the matter is Watford didn’t play that badly. In the end, United’s quality prevailed and they did overpower us at times, but the Hornets shouldn’t be ashamed by their performance in my opinion.

We gave it a go and did cause United a few problems during the first 20 minutes and at spells during the second half. Had Daryl Janmaat converted his chance with 20 minutes to play, then it would have set-up an interesting final few minutes.

There are still a few things to work on. Keeping possession is one of them, having given the ball away too cheaply at times during the match, and we afforded United too much time and space during the first half as well.

However, Saturday’s game was always going to be about the performance for me and yes, losing any game is disappointing, but there were certainly signs of encouragement that we could take away from Watford’s display against Jose Mourinho’s men. We didn’t do ourselves any disgrace whatsoever and can be satisfied with the performance we put in.

The bigger picture for me is that Watford have recorded a tally of eight points from a possible 15 from our last five games. That is good going if you ask me, especially as that run of fixtures has included matches against Arsenal and Manchester United, two teams who are up there with being some of the best in England.

So, to get eight points from that run of games is excellent in my opinion, as not only have we faced teams around us, but we’ve also come up against some of the big boys as well.

As a result, things are certainly looking a lot better than they were a month or so ago for Watford and there are plenty of positives that we can take into the rest of the season.

January signings M’Baye Niang, Tom Cleverley and Mauro Zarate have all made a big difference and all three look at home in a Watford shirt. Added to this is Walter Mazzarri’s decision to revert to a four-man defence, a move which has certainly paid dividends as well, with Watford looking a lot more solid at the back.

It’s pleasing, therefore, to see improvement on the field, as well as some signs of consistency in terms of performances, and these recent results have certainly given fans something to cheer about.

The club has got its feel good factor back and that’s something which has translated across to me as well. I’m certainly feeling a lot more positive about what the rest of the season offers as well, having seen signs of promise in recent weeks.

I’ve got that buzz back which had diminished after our dismal defeat to Millwall in the FA Cup and am certainly optimistic about what the rest of the season offers.

Fingers crossed that the Hornets can build on the positive results they have recorded in recent weeks and can replicate the promising performances they’ve put in on a regular basis.

Bradley Hayden is the founder and sole writer of @WatfordFCBlog