Watford have beaten Queens Park Rangers 3-1 in a friendly at London Colney this afternoon.

The Hornets named a very strong line-up and were two goals to the good at the break through Fernando Forestieri and Diego Fabbrini.

Seven changes were made by the hosts at the interval – and a further five followed in the second half – as Tom Hitchcock halved the deficit before Bernard Mensah added a late third.

The Hornets looked to have taken an early lead when Troy Deeney converted a Forestieri pass but he was flagged offside.

Rangers keeper Aaron Lennox did well to tip a 30-yard Lewis McGugan free-kick onto the bar and the stopper was called into action again to deny McGugan after good build-up play between Fabbrini and McGugan.

But it was Forestieri who broke the deadlock midway through the opening period when he found the bottom left corner from inside the area after being found by a Fabbrini pass.

The roles were reversed soon after when Forestieri set up Fabbrini to tap into an unguarded net to make it 2-0 after 28 minutes.

Hitchcock could have halved the deficit before the interval but he headed a a Bruno Andrade cross over the target.

Gianfranco Zola made seven changes at the break, including replacing Manuel Almunia with new signing Gary Woods in goal, while Fitz Hall, who is still training with the Hornets to keep up his fitness, was also introduced.

Hitchock did succeed in pulling one back soon after the restart from close range before Watford, who were less fluent than in the opening period, made another four changes.

Woods did well to keep out a Mo Shariff effort midway through the second half before Javier Acuna saw a shot rebound off a post and back to fellow replacement Mensah. His first-time follow-up was deflected in but again the 'goal' was disallowed for offside.

Uche Ikpeazu also hit the woodwork before Watford did add an injury-time third when Acuna's through ball released Mensah and he made no mistake with the one-on-one opportunity against Lennox.

Almen Abdi was not involved in the game as a precautionary measure after picking up a knock in training.

Watford: Almunia (Woods 46); Cassetti (Young 57), Angella (Barnum-Bobb 57), Ekstrand (Brown 46 (Smith 85)); Faraoni (Hope 57), Iriney (Hall 46), McGugan (O’Nien 46), Pudil (Kyprianou 57); Fabbrini (Acuna 46), Forestieri (Mensah 46); Deeney (Ikpeazu 46).

Queens Park Rangers: Lennox; Gibbons (Furlong 74), Ehmer, Brown, Magri; Andrade, Diakite (Trialist 70), Young (Monthe 25), Shariff (Fitzpatrick 64); Ephraim (Petrasso 56); Hitchcock.