BOOTHROYD HAILS SMITH DISPLAY

Tommy Smith was the match winner for Watford.

Watford manager Adrian Boothroyd hailed Tommy Smith after the forward's 50th goal for the club guided the Hornets to a much-needed 2-1 Coca-Cola Championship win over Preston.

Smith's goal put Watford ahead in the 21st minute after Jon Harley had equalised Sean St Ledger's opener for Alan Irvine's visitors and Boothroyd believes he may struggle to keep hold of him in January.

He said: "We had to defend for our lives in the second half but thankfully the work that we did saw us through.

"I'm thrilled for Tommy because he's been outstanding for us this season.

"He's chipping in with goals and he has the ability to manipulate the ball in tight situations.

"He's also got work rate as well. You need soldiers and artists in your team and it's rare that you have a player with both.

"He's proven himself in the Premier League as he was our best player that year.

"We will always be a selling club but I want to keep hold of my best players."

Former Hornets chairman Elton John claimed this week that the club were "heading for catastrophe" but Boothroyd refused to be drawn on the club's future.

He simply said: "People have opinions and they are always going to have that."

Preston boss Alan Irvine admitted his side's poor defending cost them any chance of claiming the points.

A straight ball from Smith led to the first goal when it should have been dealt with and when Will Hoskins helped the ball over the top Smith was allowed too much space to run on and score the second.

North End have now lost four in a row after their bright start and Irvine knows that they must stop conceding cheap goals if they are to remain in the promotion picture.

He said: "We deserved to lose because of our defending in the first half.

"The defending for both goals was terrible but they are the only four defenders we have fit at the moment.

"We created chances after the break but we didn't create enough that our domination warranted.

"We are conceding goals through some poor defending and not being clinical enough in the box.

"It's a case of putting it right at both ends of the pitch. We were very difficult to score against from January onwards when we were at the bottom of the league and we need to get back to that.

"We've conceded 10 in the last four which is a major concern. If we can get back to that then we will be ok."

Irvine was also quick to point out that despite his side's fine start he always felt a promotion push would be a tough ask.

He said: "When we got off to a good start everyone was talking about promotion. I tried to emphasise that that was premature.

"It would be a lot to ask to go from the bottom of the league in January to promotion favourites this year.

"But we've got the international break now and it's not hard to guess what we will be working on."