Scott Duxbury has said that he can understand why Watford fans were "turning against" him and owner Gino Pozzo midway through the season.

Speaking at the end of season awards show on the club's Youtube channel, the CEO and chairman said it was the first time in nine years he felt like the supporters weren't "with" the club, but admitted he shared their frustrations regarding the team's performances under Vladimir Ivic.

"This was the first time in nine years, I think right about Christmas, there was this sense that the fans weren't with us, and they weren't with me and Gino," said Duxbury.

"Listen, it's fine, it's not an ego thing, I get it but we were all working so hard and so tirelessly, everybody at the club, it just felt strange.

"The fans were turning against us, I understand why, because they shared the exact same expectation I had that the team should be doing better, and it's not as if we weren't actually doing okay in the league. We were fourth, fifth, but it was just that feeling we weren't playing entertaining football, we weren't the Watford that we all know, and that's when we realised, a change had to be made."

Ivic was sacked after a 2-0 loss away at Huddersfield and quickly replaced by Xisco Munoz.

Duxbury praised the new head coach for putting smiles back on players' faces.

"In February were nine points behind Brentford so it's been a remarkable journey," he said.

"I think that as the support then started to come back with us, everything felt a little bit better and Xisco has to take all the credit for changing the whole feeling of the club after Christmas because it was brilliant.

"We knew we had the players, but needed somebody to come in and change the psychology, the feeling, and just put smiles on players' faces again and you can see the enjoyment on the pitch. It was a tremendous job by him."