In his programme notes for the game against Coventry City on Saturday, Watford head coach Slaven Bilic urged fans to be patient during games and try to support the team even if things are not going well.

He referred to the match against Swansea at Vicarage Road, where he felt supporters became negative too early.

Therefore, his notes were somewhat prescient as the Hornets suffered their third home defeat of the season thanks to Viktor Gyokeres’ goal five minutes after half-time.

However, Bilic thought the Watford faithful were far more understanding on Saturday, and the level of support and patience was as he had hoped it would be.

“It was there on Saturday,” he said.

“I don’t expect the fans to be doing what they did against Luton every week, because that was a very special game.

“But on Saturday, the atmosphere was totally different to what I noticed against Swansea. That night I just sensed a bit of negativity a bit too early.

“Saturday was totally different to that, and what I felt on Saturday was what I expect from our fans. It was good because they were behind us, even when we conceded the goal.

“They supported us, they were patient and unfortunately we couldn’t make them happy.

“But they were there for us, and their support was the reason we didn’t lose our heads, why we didn’t collapse.

“On the contrary: we had a couple of chances in the last five minutes or so, and the fans backed us.”

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