Mark Hughes told Troy Deeney he “should know better” after the Watford captain sparked a late melee in their 1-0 Premier League defeat by Stoke City. In stoppage-time Stoke put the ball out of play after a player went down injured, but rather than pass the ball back Deeney appeared to attempt a cross into the visitors’ penalty area. Joe Allen reacted angrily but found himself being grabbed by the face by the burly Hornets striker.

Deeney and Allen were booked, but Stoke manager Hughes was less than impressed by Deeney’s conduct and suggested he should face further action.

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“I thought it was a bit unnecessary, if truthful,” he said. “Clearly we kicked the ball out and the right thing to do in the spirit of the game is throw it back. Deeney, the captain of the club, should know better.”

In the first half, it was the Stoke captain Darren Fletcher who scored his first goal for the club with a Paul Scholes-style strike from the edge of the area securing a first away win for City. The midfielder met Xherdan Shaqiri’s cross with a crisp volley from the edge of the area. The ball may have taken a slight deflection on its way underneath Heurelho Gomes in the Watford goal but Fletcher did not care as he raced to celebrate with Hughes on the touchline.

Watford piled forward in the second half and Richarlison, who was guilty of two bad misses in the 4-2 defeat at Chelsea last weekend, blew another chance by nodding a Miguel Britos cross wide. Late on, Charlie Adam thought he had settled the match when he skipped past Gomes, who had gone up for a corner, but when he rolled the ball towards an empty net it came back off a post.

Nevertheless, after four defeats in five matches, Hughes and Stoke had done enough to earn themselves some respite. Meanwhile Watford manager Marco Silva was left to rue his side’s display: “We played too slow. We knew before that they would come here with 10 players behind the ball and wait for our mistakes. In the second half we created chances, but we missed them.”