Gianfranco Zola insists it would have been difficult for any team to have beaten his resilient Watford side last night and hopes the performance against Burnley will provide "the base to move forward again".

The Hornets dug deep to earn a 0-0 draw at Turf Moor and register their first clean sheet in nine matches - their last came against Wigan Athletic on September 28.

Watford are still without a win in seven league games but after two consecutive home defeats, it was an important, morale-boosting point for the Golden Boys.

Zola praised the efforts of the whole squad after the match and believes Watford's defensive steel would have been a match for any team.

"It was going to be tough for anyone to beat us tonight and I'm looking forward to seeing more of this," Zola said.

"We can grind out results, of course we can. The team realised that this was the type of performance that we were looking for and they were excellent.

"Everyone, not only the ones who started but also the ones who came on and the ones who were on the bench."

Watford's next match is away to ninth-placed Leeds United who have won three out of their last four and play Wigan Athletic tonight.

Zola admits his team have not shown their usual fluency in recent matches but hopes the confidence will now seep back and allow the players to gradually return to their more attacking style.

"I'm sure the confidence will come and then with that will come a better quality of football," Zola said.

"I think it could be the base to move forward again. It’s a good performance against the second team in the league and that gives us a lot of confidence that we desperately need to play our own type of football.

"And also these performances will teach us something more about working together, defending together for everything."

The Hornets boss dropped his preferred 3-5-2 formation for a more defensive 4-5-1 last night with George Thorne anchoring at the back of midfield.

Zola explained after the match he had changed the system to be more solid and combat Burnley's threat from wide areas.

"It was because they are very dangerous from wide areas especially on the right with people coming in and putting in some excellent crosses," he added.

"So I wanted to cover those areas of the pitch better and I put in some more defensive players because today a defensive performance was required so it worked out very well."