A disappointed Kit Symons felt Fulham “deserved something out of the game” after they pushed Watford all the way before losing 1-0 at Vicarage Road tonight.

The Cottagers showed what they are capable of by beating former Championship leaders Derby County on Saturday and Symons’ side again gave another strong account of themselves after conceding what proved to be the decisive goal when Troy Deeney scored after nine minutes.

Symons said: “I thought a draw would have been a fair result overall. We had the better possession, a couple of more shots than them but it was pretty even-steven really. The goal we conceded was very disappointing. From their first attack really, a corner and we conceded second phase from that.

“We hadn’t been defending set pieces particularly well of late and we’ve looked at that and it’s even more frustrating, it was a second phase one, it wasn’t the initial one, but Deeney’s a good finisher in those situations. He peeled off around the back and the ball fell nicely for him and that was that. But we then had chances to get back into it at the end but couldn’t take them unfortunately.”

Watford have now scored 70 league goals this season, moving to within a point of top spot after tonight's win, but Symons was pleased with the way his team coped with the Hornets’ attacking threat.

He said: “Defensively I thought we did quite well tonight and limited their shots. We had more shots than them, more shots on target and better possession, more crosses, so all those things look great but ultimately it’s the scoreline at the end of the day I’m really worried about and that was disappointing for us. But it was a decent performance, I’ve got no problem with the way we performed tonight and that’s Derby now on Saturday, Watford today, and we were better than Derby and equally as good as Watford today so it’s sort of frustrating we are where we are but that tells the truth.”

Asked what he’d tried to put across to his team in the build-up the game to deal with Watford’s threat, Symons replied: “We had to get up against them and get our distances right. Their front three especially are very bright and they have good link-up play and so we had to make sure we stayed with our runners rather than actually focusing on the ball.

“They’ve got lots of ways to hurt you, they’re a very good side and you focus on one player and they’ve got other players who can score goals and cause you damage. We had a game-plan and we stuck to it and it very nearly came off, so I’ve got no arguments with the way the players performed tonight and stuck with the game plan.”