A dejected Tom Cleverley came down from his seat in the stands and was still scratching his head as to how Watford didn’t win at Plymouth when he faced the media after the game.
The Hornets head coach was serving a one-match touchline ban but must have been enjoying what he was seeing from his different vantage point right up until the closing seconds of the game.
Then he watched his former teammate Andre Gray grab a goal in the very final minute of stoppage time to make it 2-2 and deny Watford their third away win of the season.
“Our leaky defence and our away form has been questioned a lot this season, but tonight I’m honestly not too sure how we’ve conceded two goals and not picked up three points,” said Cleverley.
“Sometimes goals are scored against the odds, and if you reduce Plymouth to as little as we did this evening, then nine times out of 10 we win that game.
“Looking at ourselves, we can’t just say it was a freak goal – we should have done more to be out of sight at 2-1.
“I felt like we had so many opportunities in transition and we just weren’t clinical enough.
“Rather than say it was about how we defended our box in the last 30 seconds, I’d rather say it’s that we weren’t clinical enough at 2-1 up.”
Despite two points disappearing into the dark Devon night Cleverley was not overly harsh on his squad.
“I can’t be too angry with the players because it was everything we asked for,” he explained.
“We wanted a real underdog mentality when we haven’t got the ball and I thought the players were dogged, aggressive, they won duels and second balls.
“Then in possession we showed real class and calmness, and I thought we did all the things I asked for before the game.
“We just didn’t get that third goal that you always feel you need when you come here because they score a lot of late goals.
“That is what has undone us today.”
