Roy Hodgson believes Watford have the type of players Nigel Pearson needs to set a team up how he wishes and expects the Hornets to start climbing the table under their new head coach.

The new Hornets boss watched on from the director’s box as his new charges produced a hard-working and battling display under Hayden Mullins in the goalless draw with the Eagles yesterday.

The vastly experienced Palace manager is expecting more of the same characteristics under Pearson and feels Watford are still a good team, despite being at the bottom of the Premier League with only one win so far this season.

Asked about the new Hornets new head coach, Hodgson said: “I know Nigel well and I'm an admirer of his. He organises teams very well and gets his teams playing in a very disciplined and organised way. I think he’s got the right type of players for that, I think we've seen that today. I would be expecting more of the same from them.

“I thought Watford were a good team last year and I don't think they are anything other than a good team this year as well, but football and momentum does strange things to you. You get a few bad results and suddenly confidence goes a little bit and then people don't do quite what they’ve done the year before and everything looks very different to what it should look, because these are the same players who did very well last year.

“They are good players and the squad is very strong. They’ve got 25 pretty much senior players who are regular Premier League players, so I think he has come into a good set-up and I expect him to do what he does, which is to produce good teams and I will be expecting Watford to be climbing the table.”