Slavisa Jokanovic expects Watford to keep improving as the players’ confidence grows following their third consecutive victory.

Prior to this afternoon’s 1-0 win at Reading the Hornets' head coach described it as the most important match since he joined the club.

This evening he explained it was crucial the Golden Boys won to continue their fine recent form, which has seen them follow a four-game winless run with three victories.

He said: “We had four bad results in a row and it was important not to take a step back.

“This was our third win in a row and it is good for our confidence, it is good for club confidence and it is good for supporter confidence.

“Now I expect that with more confidence we can improve and we can play better and can continue to keep winning games.”

Watford were disappointing for large parts of the first half at the Madejski Stadium this afternoon.

They went into the break level on the scoreboard but a man down after Gabriele Angella was sent off for a second yellow card.

The Hornets responded to the challenge admirably after the restart and took the lead through Almen Abdi with 20 minutes remaining.

Reading had several glorious chances during the match but Watford battled resiliently to secure the victory, which moved them four points clear of seventh-place and four below league-leaders Bournemouth.

Jokanovic said it was impossible to win every game and admitted it is not easy to reproduce the superb, free-flowing display shown during the 5-0 win at Fulham two weeks ago.

But the Serbian said: “This win is very important for us and I am very proud because of the team’s suffering.

“I have to be happy with the second-half performance especially. We worked really hard together as a team and suffered so much. Then we scored the goal and kept a clean sheet.

“It is important we win this kind of game. In the second half my team arrived with the confidence that we can win with one player less, we played really well and had control of the game and won the game.

“It important that we won three games in a row and now we go into Boxing Day knowing anything is possible.

“We have a busy week in front of us and I’m confident we can continue in this positive way.”

Watford controlled possession for large spells of the first half but were very wasteful with the ball and could have gone behind on a few occasions.

Jokanovic admitted: “I was not happy with our first 45 minutes. We didn’t start very well. They were faster, stronger, won all the challenges and with the ball we made many unnecessary mistakes without any pressure.

“It was important that we reacted in the second 45 minutes and we played very well.”

A victory appeared unlikely once Angella was dismissed for a second yellow card after he fell over on the corner of the area and was adjudged to have stopped the ball with his hand as he landed.

Jokanovic said he had not seen the incident again when he addressed the media this evening but added: “It was a soft challenge and Angella slid in a little bit. I don’t know if he did touch the ball [with his hand] but if he did then I don’t think he did it intentionally. The referee had his reason and if he thinks it is a sending off then that is it.

“Sometimes it is not clear what is a foul and the rules change all the time. I’m not sure what happened but for English football it was very soft.”

Jokanovic is usually calm on the touchline but he was evidently angry with the officials and their decisions on several occasions this afternoon.

The former Chelsea midfielder said: “The referees try their best. Sometimes they make mistakes and today maybe they made some mistakes but hopefully in the future they will make some mistakes in our favour.”

Jokanovic said there was no particular reason the team came out early for the second half and was pleased his team didn’t suffer with defending long balls into their box as much today.

He singled out goalkeeper Heurelho Gomes for praise. The head coach believes the former Tottenham Hotspur goalkeeper’s experience and presence limited the number of chances Reading created.

Jokanovic accepted his team could have defended better today. “We are a Championship team and there are lots of areas where we can improve,” he said.

One player who missed today’s win was midfielder Gianni Munari. Jokanovic said the minor hamstring injury “surprised” him yesterday and did not know if the Italian would be fit for Friday’s match with Wolverhampton Wanderers.

Read a match report from today's game here.