The spirit and character which is fast becoming the trademark of this Watford side again came to the fore as they came close to snatching a last-gasp point from a 2-1 defeat against Manchester United at Vicarage Road.

The loss, the Hornets' first of the season, was suffered after Romelu Lukaku and Chris Smalling had put Jose Mourinho's men in control at the break following a quick-fire double blast.

Javi Gracia's side imposed themselves more on the game in the second half and after Andre Gray had halved the deficit, their battling efforts were almost rewarded in injury time when it took a fine David de Gea save to prevent Christian Kabasele from equalising.

Ultimately they came up short, but roared on by the majority inside Vicarage Road, Watford's 100 per cent start to the season ended after doing their best to get something from the game until the very last.

Here are a selection of images from yesterday's game.