Craig Shakespeare hopes his Watford players have experienced the type of atmosphere they will have to adapt to when the Premier League returns, after beating Brentford in a behind-closed-doors friendly.

Head coach Nigel Pearson was absent for the game through illness, but the Hornets still managed to keep a clean sheet as they beat the Championship promotion hopefuls.

Following the game, Shakespeare said he hoped his players now know exactly what to expect when their push for top flight survival resumes next week.

"I think that players will adapt to the situation and we've experienced this already last week," he said.

"We've experienced certain things in training that we've introduced so we can give them as much as near the experience as possible, but the actual experience i.e. next Saturday will be unique, we know that, it'll be a bit different, but from the players' point of view, they adapt and they're very quick to adapt.

"We tried to give them as much as what they will experience next week from meeting up, travelling in two separate coaches, coming in the entrance and into the dressing room and the red zone as it'll be known. Of course, the most important bit then is the performances and the individual fitness and the collective football out on the pitch."

Regarding the performance, Shakespeare said he was pleased with what he saw from his players against a "possession based team" as goals from Etienne Capoue and Ismaila Sarr saw the Hornets pick up the victory in a game in which they were rarely threatened.

Capoue's goal was the highlight of the game - with the midfielder blazing into the top corner from 25 yards out.

The assistant coach hopes it is a sign of things to come from the Frenchman.

"We played against a side who are possession based and ask you questions tactically and positionally," he said.

"Without the ball, I was pleased on our shape and pleased on our tempo but also pleased then when we had the ball we tried to exert some sort of temp to the game, as normal as we can. Of course we gave everyone some minutes, but overall I was pleased with a lot of aspects of our play.

"We'd like to see more [goals from Capoue]. Of course he's a very, very good technician, we know that from midfield, with his range of passing. But also aligned with that, I think he'll be encouraged to shoot from distance and the proof was there for all to see today."

Captain Troy Deeney played for the final half-an-hour of the match, with Shakespeare saying ahead of the game that he was still missing a bit of sharpness due to missing the first week of training with concerns regarding coronavirus.

However, the skipper has a full training session booked in with his teammates tomorrow and Shakespeare is pleased with his progress.

"We were pleased to give him the 30 minutes today," he said.

"He'll be doing a full training session tomorrow, as will most of them, so we are building them up. Troy, we're pleased to get them minutes under him."