After reaching the final in 2019, Watford’s flirtations with the FA Cup since have been very brief.

They have not got past the third round in the last four seasons, even going out in a replay at Tranmere having led the original game 3-0 with 25 minutes to go.

Last season, the Hornets were in the thick of an injury crisis, and in the third round tie at Reading head coach Slaven Bilic gave starts to the likes of Michael Adu-Poku, Adrian Blake and Maduka Okoye, while Tobi Adeyemo, Jack Grieves and Ryan Andrews came off the bench and 15-year-old Harry Amass was an unused sub.

This season the Hornets have far fewer injuries but also a more streamlined squad, and rotating a lot of players would almost inevitably mean dipping into the Under-21 ranks again.

Of course, the Hornets are also at home to non-league opposition, although National League leader Chesterfield have already knocked out two league clubs and are a cut above the rest of their division.

So, a potentially embarrassing banana skin, not wanting to disrespect the FA Cup and a desire not to miss an opportunity to build on a run of only three defeats in 16 matches means Watford will not be trifling with the cup tie.

“I think we take the game seriously,” said head coach Valerien Ismael.

“We are fully focussed on the game for many reasons. Firstly because the players want to play, and we have a feeling that we need to stay in our rhythm.

“The next league against QPR is only the next Sunday, so we have more than a week between games which is enough time to recover.

“We want to create a fan connection to carry on from the last home game with Stoke City, and with it being the first home game of the new year I think it is important to do that.

“Also we need to create a strong home. I think we have the potential to do that and we need to have a good start to the year to do that.

“We have played eight games since December 1 and only one was not the right picture, and that was the Bristol City game. All the other games were good.

“We have competed well with a high level of performance and we want to keep that going and build more momentum.

“So we will take the game seriously with a strong team. There will be a couple of changes but not that much, so that we can really focus on our performance in front of our own fans.

“It is another fixture and an important one. The FA Cup is a very historic competition and we respect that.

“We don’t have a lot of home games this month, and so we see a chance to hopefully get through and have another cup game at the end of the month.

“These games give players a chance to come back, some players to get some minutes, and it would be much more positive for us to come through.”

The Hornets will definitely be without five of their senior players.

“We have no new issues after the last game at Plymouth,” said Ismael.

“We’ve lost Kayembe to the African Cup of Nations, but other than that everyone who was fit for Plymouth is still fit.

“Bayo is suspended obviously, and then Ngakia, Lewis and Sema are injured.”

Any game against a non-league side in the cup presents potential embarrassment, but Ismael contends that being at home should be the key.

“We are at home, we have faced good teams already at home and we know what we are able to do,” he said.

“We have to be very professional and play to our level. That is what we have to do.”

The Hornets have not kept a clean sheet in the last 10 games, conceding 18 in that run but also scoring 19.

It’s not going to be easy to continue scoring at least two goals in order to win games.

“It’s all about when you concede a goal and what is the momentum of the game at that point,” Ismael observed.

“We need to find the balance. The defence in the last game was not good, so we spoke with the players about that although we didn’t have a lot of time to work between games before that.

“Now we are back into a more normal rhythm, it’s more of a Saturday/Saturday pattern this month and so we will have time to recover, calm down, prepare for the next game and work more on the details.

“I think we will see a big difference in our games this month.”