Calls from the sidelines were finally heeded - and more by necessity than desire - as Watford put two up front for the second half of today's 2-2 draw with Southampton.

The decision had the desired effect for the Hornets, as Troy Deeney and Andre Gray, and later Stefano Okaka, got them on their way to salvage a point from a two-goal deficit at the break.

It is one of the first times we have seen the Hornets mount a two-man attack all season - normally it is only reserved for the final throes of games - but it helped to provide a chalk-and-cheese half from the barrel-scraping rubbish which had been served up before the break.

"At half-time, we made our second change, and we played with more risk," said head coach Marco Silva. "With Doucoure and Pereyra we controlled in the second half.

"If you play two strikers and with two different midfielders it’s a risk, but we had the right mentality and I recognise and the players recognised our team in the second half."

By the half-way point, Silva had already had to row back on his original team selection, and had been planning on giving Ben Watson the hook for Roberto Pereyra, before Tom Cleverley altered his plans when he limped off down the tunnel instead.

"I know best about the physical conditions of our players, and I need to take the decisions about our team," said Silva. "The game is not just an hour, it is more, and it’s my job to manage the physical condition of some of our players.

"When we were playing like we were at that point, I needed to react and give our players a message. I didn’t want to wait until half-time."

Silva has stuck stoicly by his mantra of playing one up front for every game of his Watford career so far, and seemed lukewarm on the idea of changing that philosophy before the end of the season.

"We can play with two in attack," he said. "In every game we analyse what’s happened, we did well with two strikers and depending on my decision we may do it again.

"What I didn’t expect or want to see again was how we played in the first half."