Quique Sanchez Flores felt his side didn’t play “with the values of Watford” during the first half of their last-gasp 2-1 defeat against Manchester United and admitted it was painful to be beaten by an injury-time winner.

The Hornets had been second best in the first period but got to the break just a single goal behind after Memphis Depay’s well-taken strike after 11 minutes.

However, after forcing Flores’ former goalkeeper at Atletico Madrid, David De Gea, into a string of smart stops in the second half, Watford drew level with three minutes to go when Troy Deeney thrashed home a penalty following a foul on Odion Ighalo.

But United flew back out of the traps in search of a winner and managed exactly that when Deeney, hero a matter of minutes earlier, turned home Bastian Schweinsteiger’s low cross after Watford failed to clear a corner.

Speaking afterwards, Flores was quick to admit the Golden Boys had been poor in the first 45 minutes.

He said: “Today we were very disappointed at half-time because we were not Watford; we were not playing with the values of Watford we practice during the week – it was completely different.

“From the first minute you could smell something was not good. We didn’t choose well whether to play short or long.

“When we played long balls we didn’t get the second ball and we were always in front of (Phil) Jones and (Chris) Smalling. This is not the way.

“So we were in a bad way in the first half. In the second half we tried to forget. We said we wanted to play one match in 45 minutes and play like Watford.

“When we played like Watford we created four of five chances.”

The Spaniard added: “It was painful to lose in extra time because I think we deserved to draw in the second half.

“We made a big effort to score. In the last moments we scored, we were drawing and you feel it was possible to get a point against Man United, a very tough team and a very important team. So to lose the point is very tough; very hard.”

Flores was full of praise for Deeney, though, despite the captain’s untimely interception which saw United leave Vicarage Road with three points their performances had scarcely deserved.

“It’s a pity because he is always very brave to accept the challenge to score the penalty in the 87th minute,” said Flores. “He scored it very well, very clever.

“But finally it’s Deeney. It’s possible because he’s fighting everywhere in the pitch so he tried to remove the ball from the line of our goal.”