The victory at Stoke gave plenty of cause to be confident ahead of the game with Swansea, but it was also the reason that head coach Slaven Bilic felt disappointed after the 2-1 defeat.

“I expected better, much better,” he said.

“Make no mistake, I knew it would be hard. You can’t expect to dominate whole games. You have to stop the other team playing, be compact, sometimes come deep because you can’t press all the time.

“But I expected us to be more brave after the win at Stoke. I expected us to come into this game knowing this is our home, this is our stadium, this is our fortress.

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Watford 1 Swansea 2 - match report

“We won 4-0, clean sheet, all that positive stuff, blah blah blah. I expected to start on the front foot. If you do, and the opponents are better, then ok. But we didn’t start in that way.

“Did it affect our game later? No. Because we weren’t two goals down, it was 0-0 and they hadn’t created a lot. But we were not aggressive in that first 25 minutes.”

The Swans pinned Watford back throughout the opening spell, often causing the home side to look uncomfortable with their energetic press. However, they didn’t help themselves either by failing to be crisp and quick in the way they moved the ball.

“We didn’t start on the front foot at all. We weren’t confident enough, our passes weren’t quick enough, our passing wasn’t positive,” said Bilic.

“Our passing was sloppy and slow. We were too cautious. If you roll the ball rather than strike the ball then you give the opponent a chance to close you down.

“Swansea are a team that plays free football on the front foot, they take risks. I wanted us to have a more positive first touch from the start, and to look forward.

“When we did that, but it took us 25 minutes, then we started to get into the game properly.

“I’m not happy with the result of course, but the only part of the game I’m really unhappy with was the first 25 minutes of the game. I didn’t like that opening period of the game. After that we were good, even when we had to make those changes.”

That Watford ended the game with a back four where nobody was in the same position they started the game, and with James Morris and Mattie Pollock making their league debut, was not something Bilic was going to use to defend the marking (or lack of) that led to the Swansea winner.

“The winning goal should not have happened anyway,” he said.

“A lot of goals come from set pieces, and if it was a great header, a great leap or whatever, then ok. But the guy was alone in the middle of our six-yard box. That’s very hard to accept.

“We lost the shape we had in the first half for defensive set-plays, and that is not a criticism of the players that came on. We didn’t have any problems defending set-plays in the first half.”

Right at the death there was confusion after a melee in the Swansea goalmouth with Watford claiming a penalty. The referee spent some time consulting with his linesman, taking the game into more than 20 minutes of added time after the earlier technical stoppage.

“We were appealing for a penalty, and I’ve been told that at one moment he gave a penalty,” said Bilic.

“Then suddenly it wasn’t. I didn’t see if it was as it was on the other side of the pitch.”

What about that technical stoppage which resulted in an initial 17 minutes of stoppage time?

“I don’t want to give that as the reason we lost the game,” said Bilic. “It affected both teams because none of us knew how long it was going to be.

“What affected us more, in the second half, was the couple of injuries. We’re short of numbers anyway in defence, in terms of quantity and quality, and then we lose two more experienced players.

“We had to put two Under-23s on. Don’t get me wrong they are both great prospects and I’m proud of them. But to bring them both into such a demanding game in the middle of the second half – it’s not so bad when you are coming on as a striker, but in defence it’s very demanding.

“We had to move Kamara to the right, the whole defensive line we ended with was not a normal one.”

Bilic did try to explain what happened during the delay, something he said he had never experienced before as a coach or player.

“I asked the referee why we were having the delay and to give me some kind of timeframe of when would restart. It’s not the officials’ fault, they are trying their best.

“It would be unfair to say we lost because of that. It happened in a period when we’d had five or ten minutes being on top, but it was a situation that affected both teams.

“The referee said that by the rules he couldn’t continue. They aren’t allowed to play without at least part of their communications system. They had lost goal-line technology, which is crucial.

“Not having communication between the referee and the linesman is not ideal, but the one that is key is goal-line technology. Losing that was what stopped us from playing.”