Watford captain Troy Deeney has conceded that his team were "not good enough" during Saturday's 2-0 defeat at Hull City in the Premier League.
Hull had Oumar Niasse sent off in the 25th minute of the fixture at the KCOM Stadium, but the home side still collected all three points courtesy of goals from Lazar Markovic and Sam Clucas.
Deeney has insisted that his team "have a moral obligation to play better", and offered his apologies to the Watford fans that travelled to the match on Saturday afternoon.
"Not good enough. We just thought we could play some tiki-taka football against a team fighting for their lives. I'm not in the business of apologising, but it's a long journey for our fans and that wasn't good enough, which is why I went over to apologise to the fans," Deeney told reporters.
"We have a moral obligation to play better. We don't play till Monday and it will be a long hard week. It's just not about this season, it's about next season."
Watford sit 10th in the Premier League table on 40 points, nine points clear of the relegation zone.