Will Hughes felt he was caught by Liverpool’s Andrew Robertson, but refused to be drawn on whether there was enough contact for a penalty to be awarded.

The Watford midfielder went down under pressure from the Scotland international early in the second half, but referee Jon Moss waved away the midfielder’s protests, much to the dismay of the home crowd.

Replays appeared to suggest that there was slight contact between the duo and the referee’s decision came under further scrutiny when Liverpool opened the scoring five minutes later through Mohamed Salah.

But while admitting there was contact, Hughes was unsure whether it was enough for a spot-kick to be awarded.

He said: “I’ve not seen it back again, but I felt a little contact and I’ve gone over. Whether or not it’s enough contact (to give a penalty) I’m not sure. We’ll have to wait and see with the replays.”

Once Liverpool got their noses in front on Saturday at Vicarage Road, they didn’t look back and further strikes from Trent Alexander-Arnold and Roberto Firmino sealed the visitors a 3-0 win.

Alexander-Arnold scored a delightful free-kick from 25-yards with 15 minutes remaining and Firmino would also get his name on the scoresheet late on, when he was on hand to tap home from close range after Ben Foster had done well to save Sadio Mane’s initial effort.

But the score-line didn’t reflect Watford’s performance, with the Golden Boys restricting their opponents to limited opportunities during the first hour, while the likes of Salah, Mane and Firmino also struggled to get a foothold in the game.

However, the Hornets did struggle to create many goalscoring opportunities themselves, with Roberto Pereyra’s effort five minutes before the break being the Golden Boy’s only shot on target during the game.

Javi Gracia’s men did, though, have the ball in the back of the net after two minutes thanks to Gerard Deulofeu’s smart finish, but the Spaniard was flagged for offside just as he raced through.

As such, Hughes felt the Hornets were punished for not being ruthless on the counter attack and admitted it was always going to be difficult to get back into the game after falling behind.

He said: “I wouldn’t say we played really well. For 60 minutes, I think we were well organised and defensively we were quite sound. I don’t think we were too good on the counter attack and we missed a couple of opportunities with some poor passes.

“Defensively we seemed very confident and once the first goal goes in, it’s quite frustrating then. When you try and get back into it against a team like Liverpool, they’re going to punish you and unfortunately it did end 3-0.

“For 60 minutes, we were well in it and at half-time, we thought it was a decent opportunity to get a point. But you can’t take your eye off the ball for one second against a team like Liverpool because they’re going to punish you and they did with the first goal. From then, it was a difficult one to get back into.”