The importance of the first goal in what had been a tight game was not lost on Watford Women head coach Damon Lathrope after yesterday’s 3-0 defeat against Southampton at St Mary’s Stadium.

The Hornets could easily have been at least a goal to the good before the home side took the lead shortly before half-time, but a combination of one stunning save and some less than ruthless finishing meant they went in at the break pondering what might have been.

“I think going in front, for us in particular, would have massively helped because of the way we set up,” said Lathrope.

“We looked reasonably solid, in the first half particularly, behind the ball and we restricted a very good team in Southampton to very little.

“Had we had something – and not something to just protect because doing that is dangerous – to keep our tails up and maintain the energy in the team, then that would have been very important.”

It really was a case of one team taking what opportunities they had, and the other failing to do so.

“There were minimal clear-cut chances for either side,” said Lathrope.

“But having watched the game back, other than their first two goals I don’t think they had a meaningful shot inside the box.

“I don’t think our keeper had to make a proper save really.

“It’s a game of moments, and unfortunately we had our moments to take the lead early on in the game.

“We could have been one or two up but we didn’t convert those chances, then they took their couple of half-chances and suddenly the game gets away from you.”

Those opening 40 minutes offered plenty of encouragement for Watford as they fight to stay in the Championship, but the head coach admitted it was more important to work on becoming better than reflect on the plus points from a defeat.

“There are positives, yes, but now we need to focus on how we can get better and make ourselves more effective,” he said.

“We want to look at what we’ve done well and how for 40 minutes we were competitive away from home against a team in the top four.

“But I still feel there are areas that we need to focus on to make ourselves a better team that will make us more effective overall.”