Rob Edwards tried to placate some very angry fans in the away end after the final whistle at Ewood Park, and apologised again when he spoke to the media – but he was also very clear that the players have to shoulder the blame too.

The head coach did as he always does at full-time and headed towards the 592 Watford fans who were about to make the second half of an eight-hour round trip.

He was confronted by a number who directed abuse at the players – keeper Dan Bachmann went and spoke to some of them - and Edwards tried to gesture that he understood. He reiterated that in his post-match press conference.

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“There were one or two people who were very angry. More than one or two actually, and understandably so,” he said.

“I was just trying to signal to say that I understand their frustration. I appreciate they have travelled a long way and spent a lot of money, and the performance they saw was not good enough.

“So I do apologise to them for that: it’s my responsibility. I’ve always said, win, lose or draw, I’d go to our fans and say thank you. There were a quite few who were very angry and upset, and I can understand that tonight.”

However, the Watford boss also made it clear that while he was ready to accept the flack, he expected far, far more from his players.

“There was a lack of spirit and fight, and I’ve talked to the lads about that in the dressing room after the game. We have to rectify that very, very quickly. It was the thing that hurt the most, the lack of spirit,” he admitted.

“The players are disappointed and there are one or two who have voiced their opinions, which is good because you need that. I don’t want silence. I have one or two characters who said some good things. I need to see a reaction. They know that.”

Edwards suggested that there needs to be a very quick change of mindset in his squad, who may be falling into the trap of thinking that simply being on the pitch will be enough to collect points in the Championship.

“If you turn up expecting to win games, you won’t – against anybody. We need to realise that very quickly. Nobody, at any level, is just good enough to turn up and expect to win a game of football. We certainly aren’t. We have to earn the right to win games.”

So far this season Watford have managed to pick up points without ever playing particularly well, often doing enough in small pockets to win a game or take a point. At Ewood Park, even those pockets of good play were not evident.

“I can’t think of any times in the first half where we showed anything. There was half a penalty claim but other than that, not much at all,” said Edwards.

“There was maybe a 15-minute spell in the second half where perhaps we maybe could have done something. Other than, there wasn’t much at all.

“We have not got a hope if we only allow ourselves that much of a chance to get something from a game.

“Because we didn’t win any first or second balls – and when we did, we weren’t good enough with it – we didn’t have any purpose to our play and we were on the back foot, which meant we weren’t able to do anything in attack, particularly in the first half.”

The one glimmer of a chance was when Christian Kabasele’s effort from a corner was ruled out for offside in the 57th minute.

“I haven’t looked back at the disallowed goal yet,” said Edwards.

“I don’t want to start making excuses as even if we had scored we probably wouldn’t have deserved it. There was a foul by Keinan Davis I’m told, but I’ll need to look back at it.”