Having made his first start of the season against Hull, two impressive games in midfield later and it feels like Tom Dele-Bashiru has been part of the team for far longer.

In fact the 23-year-old has made just six appearances since joining from Manchester City in summer 2019 as injuries have held him back.

Indeed, 38 of his 44 senior career outings came on loan at Reading last season and before starting last weekend against Hull, Dele-Bashiru had only played 13 minutes of first-team football for Watford this season.

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However, he is certainly someone who has benefited from the World Cup break and particularly the week spent out in Spain.

“When I first came back from the injury, the boys were pretty much playing a game every three days and that made it difficult to get into the flow of things,” Dele-Bashiru explained.

“The boys who didn’t play in a game train the next day in a smaller group, then the day after that the preparations start for the next game.

“When you’re in that pattern of games and training, it’s difficult to showcase your ability and let people see what you’re all about.

“But out in Spain it was really different, and we had time. The manager had time to spend with us all, and he could see more of me and see what I can do on the ball. That Spanish trip really helped me.”

Up until then, the Manchester-born midfielder had been patiently waiting for his chance.

“I’ve been working really hard in training, waiting for my opportunity. The injury at the start of the season set me back, but when I did get back I wasn’t fully match fit so I needed to keep working in training and showing the manager I was ready.

“Now I’ve got my opportunity, I’m feeling good and the aim is just to keep putting in good performances.

“Since I came to Watford there have been so many ups and downs with injuries, I’ve never really had the chance to play a full season or even get a good run of games in.

“I’m enjoying my football and I’m just pleased to have this opportunity to show everyone what I can do.”

Although understandably Joao Pedro grabbed the headlines at Huddersfield for his two goals, Dele-Bashiru’s performance drew praise and his 50-yard surging run to set up the first goal was especially eye-catching.

“When I got the ball I saw Jonathan Hogg in front of me, and I thought that if I could just shift the ball past him there was space for me to go into. I could see there wasn’t much else behind him.

“Once I’d done that I just kept going and was looking for the right pass. I didn’t want to try and force something.

“The defenders started to move towards my left and I could see JP was free to my right, so I just gave it to him.”

Head coach Slaven Bilic said as he watching the move unfold from the dug-out, he thought Dele-Bashiru had deliberately drifted left in order to create space on the right for Pedro.

“Yeah, he’s right,” said Dele-Bashiru, “I was driving more to the left so they thought that maybe I was trying to shift the ball onto my left foot for a shot. That moved them one way and then I could slip the ball to the side to JP.

“Our front four are real quality, so when you have the ball you know you can give it to any of them. In that situation it was JP, and he is a class player. He was my best option in that situation and he just did his thing.”

The goal broke the deadlock early in the second half after a frustrating first 45 minutes with the almost obligatory slow start on the road from Watford.

“The set-up of the game meant it was difficult for us to progress the ball up the pitch in the opening period,” said Dele-Bashiru.

“The play was backwards and forwards, it was a game where you were having to take possession off the second ball.

“We weren’t really winning a lot of those second balls for much of the first half, but at half-time the gaffer said that obviously this was the sort of game it was turning out to be and we might not be able to get the ball down and play like we want to.

“He said the key was to focus on winning the second balls and then, when we did, then we can settle and build our attacks. I think, in the second half particularly, we did that.”