Watford boss Tom Cleverley's "naïve" admission ahead of West Brom trip

Watford earned a crucial 1-0 victory at home to Hull on Tuesday night to keep themselves on the coat-tails of the play-off race - indeed they travel to face Albion two places but just a point adrift of their hosts.

Cleverley's side have been struck by injuries to key players, with influential attacking pair Giorgi Chakvetadze and Kwadwo Baah both ruled out after setbacks last weekend.

Georgian Chakvetadze played a starring role as the Hornets enjoyed Vicarage Road success against Albion in December and the midfielder has been one of the division's standout players this season.

Cleverley has instead had to call on the youth of Rocco Vata, Mamadou Doumbia, Zavier Massiah-Edwards and Caleb Wiley, though the head coach suggested that Albion's home could be a difficult setting for young players.

“It’s a great experience for the youngsters but I’ve got to manage it now, because The Hawthorns on Saturday is a different environment, and maybe I’d be naïve to have so many young players in an environment like that," Cleverley told the Watford Observer

“But they will all develop and learn from this experience (against Hull) tonight.

“I said to them after the game they should be learning off the senior lads on a daily basis because they have some really great examples in the dressing room.”

The Hornets had managed just a single victory in six games prior to the midweek effort against Hull.

Former Villa and Manchester United man Cleverley will later this month mark a year in permanent charge of Watford but including an interim spell in replacing Valerien Ismael he has passed 12 months at the helm. Such a milestone is an uncommon one at Vicarage Road, where the owners are renowned for making changes.

Cleverley added of his current side: "We’re missing Baah, we’re missing Chakvetadze, our two most creative players.

“I’m asking a lot of this group to create 15 or 20 chances.

“We have Rocco, Zavier and Mamadou in an attacking unit – Rocco is a bit more developed but we were expecting the other two to be first-team players in three years and yet they’re doing it right now, way ahead of schedule.

“So I said that, and it was also against a team that doesn’t give up much so it was always likely to be a 1-0 win. I would have taken the result over absolutely anything."