Beppe Sannino was reluctant to discuss Watford’s play-off chances after their impressive 3-0 victory over Leeds United but he did acknowledge conceding late goals is the reason they are not in the top six.

The Hornets continue to hang on to a slim chance of securing a play-off place, partly due to the poor form of many of the teams chasing a top six spot.

The gap between the Golden Boys and sixth-place Reading is seven points with six matches remaining but the Hertfordshire side do have a game in hand.

Sannino started his post-Leeds press conference with the now customary referee’s whistle, adding “now let’s start the match”.

“I am very happy for our fans and my players,” Sannino said in English.

“It was very important. We have one game less and we have six matches left and we hope to collect as many points as possible.”

He added: “I don’t like to speak about the play-offs, I never liked doing it. I want to talk about the next match.”

However, he did later expand further: “You know this has been an up and down season in terms of results.

“In the last eight minutes under my regime we have dropped eight points. If we had eight points added to our points total then we would be in the play-offs. So the mathematics is easy.

“We know it has cost us a lot but if you saw in the last match that we had more concentration.”

Leeds were very poor at Vicarage Road but Watford were also impressive in all aspects of their performance.

Sannino said: “I was pleased about the balance between the attack and defence tonight but I am a demanding guy.

“I didn’t start the season with Watford and I think we could improve.”

Sannino made four changes to his starting XI as Albert Riera, Davide Faraoni, Almen Abdi and Sean Murray all came into the team, with Daniel Pudil, Mathias Ranegie, Lewis McGugan and the injured Cristian Battocchio making way.

Sannino explained: “With Albert Riera, we knew he hadn’t started for two months and I have Pudil in the same position who is another good player.

“The problem we had in midfield was Battocchio’s injury but Sean did well and I only subbed him because he was a little bit tired.

“None of the changes were due to fitness issues.”

Read a report from the 3-0 win over Leeds here.