Quique Sanchez Flores was quick to state that not too many conclusions could be drawn from the Hornets' first pre-season workout, stressing improvement will be gradual.

The Golden Boys cantered to a 4-0 win over local National League South side St Albans City with Flores using 22 players across the 90 minutes.

Watford returned for pre-season training little over a week ago and this was their first run-out of the summer and at times, it showed.

However, two goals in as many first-half minutes from Odion Ighalo were added to by Troy Deeney and Connor Smith in the second period to give the Spaniard plenty to smile about come full time.

But the former Atletico Madrid and Benfica boss was reserved in his assessment of the game and said afterwards: “This is our first match and we have been training for a week so at the moment important thing is to take an impression of how the players can compete.

“But at the moment this kind of match is normal in the first weeks of pre-season.”

Flores named a starting XI which saw Ikechi Anya and Daniel Pudil employed at full-back, though by the end of the encounter the Golden Boys had switched to a central defensive trio.

The fluid nature of Watford’s defensive setup under Slavisa Jokanovic was one of the Serbian’s great successes last term and asked if he would like to maintain that aspect of his predecessor’s setup, Flores confirmed he would.

He said: “At the moment this is the system we are training with: four defenders, two midfielders, three second strikers and one striker but we are trying to do a lot of things.

“Yes [I want to be able to switch between three and four at the back], but we have to wait a little bit longer. We are watching the players and their evolution but we do not want to make too many conclusions from the first game.”

One conclusion Hornets supporters will have drawn, regardless of what Flores had to say, is that Lloyd Dyer, Lewis McGugan, Essaid Belkalem and Diego Fabbrini are being given the opportunity to show their worth to the new head coach.

Only Fabbrini of the four was left an unused substitute and Cristian Battocchio – who spent last season out on loan at Virtus Entella – willl also be re-integrated into training.

“These are the players we have now,” said Flores. “I think we have to mix younger players and experienced players but at the moment we do not want to play too many minutes with the players.

“This was a simple game but we have to wait a little bit longer – much longer – if we are going to improve,” he explained.

With that in mind, the order of the day was very much getting minutes into legs which – bar the internationals in the squad – had not been in action since the beginning of May.

And for Flores, that process is all part of the bigger picture. “The first two weeks we are trying to improve physically,” he said. “The players get tired quickly so we have to wait a little bit longer [for them to recover] so at the moment it is very important to try to understand the training, exercise and how we are going to play.

“I want the players to try to win and increase their confidence. Step-by-step we are trying to make a team.”

You can read the report from Watford’s 4-0 victory at Clarence Park by clicking here.