It may be just a pre-season game but as head coach Rob Edwards said after this afternoon’s 2-0 defeat to Bolton Wanderers at the club’s training ground, “we need to start turning performances into goals and victories”.

The Hornets shot themselves in the foot in this game, barely being threatened in the first quarter of an hour but then gifting the visitors a goal in the 16th minute. Dan Bachmann took a heavy touch as he controlled a firmly-hit back-pass, the ball landed between him and Christian Kabasele which allowed Keiran Lee to nip into and stroke it into the bottom corner.

Only moments before Vakoun Bayo had flashed a shot into the side-netting after being released by Edu Kayambe and the Hornets continued to enjoy good spells of possession with Tom Dele-Bashiru driving into the box and shooting wide before Dan Gosling prodded Joao Pedro’s cross-cum-shot into the net from an offside position.

Dele-Bashiru's willingness to burst forward was one of the highlights as the home side ended the first half looking more potent than they started it. A typically marauding charge from the midfielder saw him break into the left of the box but he sent a powerful shot over the top.

William Troost-Ekong was replaced after 35 minutes by Mattie Pollock, a planned change as this was the Nigerian international’s first football of pre-season.

The visitors had an effort ruled out for offside in the 37th minute, but they stretched their advantage in the 43rd minute. A fine ‘round the corner’ ball in midfield from MJ Williams split the Watford defence and Dapo Afolayan raced through to beat Bachmann with an angled shot.

The Hornets responded brightly and Hassane Kamara cut in from the left before letting fly with a shot that was deflected wide, and the half ended with Pedro flicking a shot onto the crossbar when he met Gosling’s low corner at the front of the six-yard box.

The second half display was more complete than what the Hornets showed in the first period, and they certainly started at a better tempo.

Pedro followed up a bright display against Panathinakos on Sunday with another good performance, and his clever pass set up Gosling for a low shot that the keeper held.

Watford’s two best chances of the game arrived within a minute of each other just before the hour mark, and it was almost as if the game had been rewound as they were so similar.

Kamara, who started the second half at right wing back, cut in from the flank and sent over a cross that Ismaila Sarr met with a well-timed run. His header seemed goalbound but was superbly tipped over.

The pair then did almost exactly the same thing, Kamara coming inside from the flank on his left foot and delivering a teasing cross with Sarr rose well to meet – this time the header was pushed round the post.

The usual swathe of substitutions in the last half an hour broke up the tempo of the game, and the only effort of note in the last 20 minutes was when Domingos Quina turned smartly and dragged a shot wide.

Watford: Okoye; Troost-Ekong, Kabasele, Samir; Ngakia, Dele-Bashiru, Gosling, Kayembe, Kamara; Pedro, Bayo. Subs: Pollock for Trrist-Ekong after 35 mins; Okoye, Sema and Sarr for Bachmann, Ngakia and Baypo after 45 mins; Quina for Dele-Bashiru after 60 mins; Kalu and Sierralta for Pedro and Kabasele after 63 mins; Hungbo and Asprilla for Kamara and Gosling after 68 mins; Morris for Samir after 70 mins.