Reaction: Cleverley On Fulham

Tom Cleverley spoke to the media after Watford's 4-1 defeat to Fulham in the third round of the Emirates FA Cup.

Read what he had to say below...

On how the game unfolded:

It was a good first-half, we showed some real discipline out of possession. We had some good moments on the counter-attack, and it was a fantastic goal from Rocco [Vata]. We conceded at a really poor time in the second-half.

We gifted them a goal straight after half-time, and their quality can be unforgiving at this level. It was good for a few of our players to see the levels in English football, and how strong the Premier League is.

On giving players a chance to impress:

It's a game where I had to make a lot of changes because of how busy the Christmas period was.

I saw a group of players for 70 minutes, when the game was still in the balance, who were willing to sacrifice for each other and that pleased me.

On Rocco Vata's goal:

It's something that we don’t coach too much, he’s cut in and scored from 25 yards! Rocco has that quality.

He's one of those players who works on his finishing a lot on the training ground and it’s the 10-yard ones when he's in the right place which really give me satisfaction.

But that was an incredible strike and he does have that in the locker.

On conceding the penalty:

It’s a good learning curve for [Antonio] Tikvić. I feel like his first-half performance was excellent, then one mistake and it costs you a goal.

That’s what playing at this level is about. We shot ourselves a little bit in the foot, and that’s been a little bit of our story recently.

We need to tighten up on our individual errors. We couldn’t really get a foothold in the second-half.

On a promising display from Mamadou Doumbia:

He knew the right time to go press, he knew the time to be protective, he was aggrresive.

He held the ball up well. It was a solid performance from Mamadou and obviously with [Daniel] Jebbison going back, we’ll be relying more on him now.

On Watford bringing more than 4,000 fans: 

When you go through a difficult moment you need your supporters with you and what a following today.

The noise was incredible first half, and I felt really proud to be the coach of this team. We’re hearing those supporters.

On improving the squad in January:

We’re hoping to improve the squad. To maintain and sustain what we’re doing, if we win our game in hand we’re around the top six. We have to strengthen because those around us will. We’re working hard to do so.

On Pierre Dwomoh's injury:

He felt discomfort in his thigh area. We don’t know if it was bone or muscle, so we’ll assess that. It’s unfortunate for him.