Watford currently lead Fulham 1-0 at Vicarage Road after Troy Deeney’s 15th goal of the season.

Head coach Slavisa Jokanovic made five changes to the Golden Boys’ starting XI as Adlene Guedioura and Marco Motta made their first starts since completing moves last week.

The Hornets reverted to a 3-5-2 formation as Daniel Pudil came in at left back and Odion Ighalo had to settle for a place on the bench following the exploits of Matej Vydra and Troy Deeney at Leeds United on Saturday.

Watford scored the half’s only goal after just nine minutes. Almen Abdi’s corner was flicked on at the near post by Craig Cathcart and parried by Marcos Bettinelli. Deeney was then able to smash the ball into the roof of the net.

The Golden Boys showed real desire from the first whistle as they hustled and harried the opposition. But Fulham fired a warning shot shortly after Deeney’s opener when Ross McCormack was given the space on the corner of the area and Heurelho Gomes was forced to parry the striker’s powerful effort away.

Abdi had a low drive from outside the area held but clear-cut openings were few and far between in the first half an hour as both team looked to build attacks.

Fulham are 19th in the table but they held their own against the promotion-chasers and caused a few scary moments for the home side. Gabriele Angella had to head from close to his line after Ryan Tunnicliffe headed back across goal and Ben Watson did the same after Gomes came out for a cross.

Abdi wasn’t far away with a 25-yard strike and Vydra hit the crossbar from the edge of the area after good work from Guedioura. But the game was finely balanced as the two teams headed into the break.

Watford: Gomes; Cathcart, Angella, Hoban; Motta, Abdi, Watson, Guedioura, Pudil; Deeney, Vydra.

Subs: Bond, Paredes, Anya, Layun, Tozser, Forestieri, Ighalo.

Fulham: Bettinelli; Richards, Hutchinson, Bodurov, Stafylidis; Tunnicliffe, Fofana, Kavanagh, Ruiz; Woodrow, McCormack.

Subs: Kiraly, Hoogland, Amorebieta, Kacaniklic, Rodallega, Smith, Dembele.