Watford head coach Vladimir Ivic has hit out at the Championship schedule makers, who have now twice given the Hornets a Friday fixture following an international break.

Following his side's 1-0 win at Derby, the Serbian said it was "not nice" that he had twice had to prepare for games at shorter notice than other teams, particularly with some of his players travelling to far off corners of the planet to take part in their international fixtures.

Included in those were Francisco Sierralta, who had to venture to South America to face Uruguay and Colombia, and Ismaila Sarr, who only returned from Africa the day before the match.

Asked if Sarr's absence from the game was to do with a £25million bid from Crystal Palace that had been rejected earlier in the day, the head coach said he knew nothing about it and that the player was missing due to his international duties.

"To be honest, I didn't speak with anyone about [the bid], I don't know anything about that because I was concentrating on the game today and I didn't speak to the people from the club about the potential movement from some of the players who are not with us. I cannot tell you anything more," he said.

Watford Observer:

"Sarr wasn't here because of his trip. He arrived yesterday morning from Senegal and he was very tired. He couldn't do the practise yesterday and today was the same. We rested him because we have five or six players in the national teams and it's the second time after the international break that we play on a Friday.

"It's not easy. When you have six players in the national teams and it's the second time it's happened, the second time that we play on Friday. It's totally something we cannot be satisfied with, that they decided we play on Friday. With this programme and with our six international players. One is from Senegal, another is from Chile, we have a lot of players who make long trips to come here and after we cannot use them."

Ivic said the club were aware of his feelings and said that he just wanted to be given the chance to prepare for games as best he could and to not be hamstrung by schedules.

"I tell my opinion now and the board knows this," he said. "I'm a coach who wants to prepare his team in the best way. I worked the previous week with 10 players, 11 players because some of them are injured, a lot of them are out and when you work with 10, 11 players for two weeks and prepare for a game it's not nice and it's not good for anyone coaching."