Tom Cleverley expressed his disappointment after Watford's goalless draw with Millwall, saying it felt more like a defeat after the final whistle.

The draw lifted the Hornets above their promotion rivals Swansea City into second place, but the midfielder still believed it was a case of two points dropped rather than one gained.

Speaking to the club website after the match, he described a deflated changing room and said he felt they had done enough to win the match.

“I’m not pleased at all, to be honest. The dressing room in there feels a bit like a defeat," said Cleverley.

“I thought in the first half especially we created some decent openings and we looked threatening from set-pieces in the first hour. But we just couldn’t put the ball in the back of the net, so we’re disappointed with that.

“It’s definitely two points lost but we have to move on. When I look back on it, it’s not the worst result but right now it feels pretty sore.

Picture: PA

Picture: PA

“We want to be in the top two spots and these are the sort of games you have to win to do that and achieve our goal, so at the minute I feel it’s more two points lost than one point gained.”

While Watford do currently sit in the automatic promotion spots, Swansea have two games in hand on them and wins in both would take them five points clear of the Hornets.

That provides a clear demonstration of how tight things are at the top of the Championship at the moment and exactly why every point is precious.

Cleverley is aware that Watford's points tally from their last four matches is impressive, but could still not be enough come the end of the campaign.

“If someone had offered us 10 points in the last four games we’d have taken it," he said. "It’s just disappointing when we get our first three-match winning run together that we can’t make it four going into another game at home, where we’ve been brilliant.

“We’re back to work tomorrow, we know there’s a long way still to go and as long as you’re in the top two spots come the last day of the season then that’s your job done, so we’re not going to be too harsh on ourselves.”

A return to Vicarage Road on Monday offers the Hornets a chance to start a new winning streak, from which they will attempt to break their current season best of three in a row.

However, Cleverley knows that the away form will still need to improve if they have any realistic hopes of promotion.

“We’ll be confident going into any home game,” he said.

“We know we need to improve our away form but for any game at The Vic we’ve got real confidence at the minute. We’ve got the best home record in the league and we hope that continues.”