There was an all-too-familiar feeling for Watford fans when the Hornets went a goal down after a painfully common slow start at Cardiff.

The inability to come flying out of the blocks has blighted the season so far, and it’s not just the fans who are aware of it.

Goalkeeper Daniel Bachmann said the players are feeling it, and know they must start to do something about it.

“It was a rubbish goal to concede, we know that. And the start too. This season we have just not started well, and it’s happening nearly every single game,” he said.

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“Wherever we go, it’s the same – we did it at Wigan too. We’ve played 18 games now and I think that maybe we’ve started well in three of them.

“That’s just not good enough because we’re giving ourselves a mountain to climb in nearly every game. It’s not just the goal we conceded: they could have had three in the first 10 minutes.

“We need to sort this out, because we’re making life difficult for ourselves.

“The way we have started games this season is not good enough, and we’re putting our fans on edge and we don’t want that away from home.

“We start badly, we concede early and that is making life hard for ourselves.”

Having got his frustration at another poor start out of the way, Bachmann hailed the resilience to come back and claim a second successive away win.

“It’s massive to win two away games in a row, and we’ve done it by coming from a goal down too. It’s tough in this league and they’re a difficult team to play against.

“The game was decided by set pieces. It’s important to be able to do that as sometimes you can’t create enough chances when teams sit deep, and especially away from home.

“We had to find a way to win, and we dug to deep to do it.”

There was a heart-stopping moment for Watford fans in the closing minutes when Sheyi Ojo was played in behind the Hornets defence and Bachmann saved with his legs.

“I’ve said it before, saves are what I’m here for,” said Bachmann.

“The one just after half-time was probably the better save technically. In a one-on-one all you can do is try and block.

“I want to win games, we all do, so my part is to make saves.”

Having conceded early from a corner, and with Cardiff throwing men forward in the dying minutes, Bachmann also rose in a crowded six-yard box to gather a corner shortly after that save and take the heat off.

“I want to try and do that but it is really difficult in this league. Set pieces are probably harder to defend in the Championship than in the Premier League, mainly because of the size of a lot of the teams.

“Most teams have at least one player that has unbelievable delivery and with that and a lot of physical presence it makes it difficult to defend set plays.

“I’m trying to help the team at them as much as I can, as I can help take the pressure off the rest of the team.”

Bachmann paid tribute to the travelling Watford fans who had to battle through massive traffic problems and terrible weather to get to the Cardiff City Stadium.

“It is not an easy journey at all at the best of times, the weather has been awful and we really appreciate when we get on the pitch and see the fans who have made such a big effort to get there.

“We’ve only just been to Wigan on Saturday and a few days later the fans have had to make another long away trip on a Wednesday night. They’re dealing with the weather, with train cancellations, the lot.

“As a group of players, we really appreciate the lengths the fans go to. In the circumstances, we had a lot of fans here tonight and we truly appreciate it.

“It certainly helps us to walk out on the pitch and feel that support wherever we go.”