The best of few scoring opportunities fell to Watford's Domingos Quina after 74 minutes. But, unmarked 12 yards out, he shot too close to Dan Bentley and saw the City keeper react well to tip the ball over.

Ivic said: "That was a big chance and we deserved to score because we were on top in the game for long periods.

"For the first 60 minutes we controlled the tempo of the match, but couldn't find the final pass to make our efforts count.

"Between the 60th and 80th minutes we lost that control and allowed them to create some chances.

"But overall it was a much better performance than in recent games and I was happy with the attitude of the team and the way they played.

"We were up against strong opponents and if you cannot win, it is very important not to lose, especially to teams close to you in the table.

"We didn't have much time to work on the new system and we had a lot of young players out there playing a lot of minutes.

"I always want to win games, but we will take a point and move on."

While three of Watford's squad were missing, having tested positive for Covid-19, Holden was already without eight players through injury when skipper Tomas Kalas pulled out of the game with a quad muscle problem.

Holden said: "We are not sure yet when Tomas will be available again. I made Jack Hunt captain because he has been superb for me since I took charge.

"It meant another change and I am really pleased with how we kept a lot of very good opposition players quiet.

"That is only one goal conceded in four games now. Watford had more of the ball in the first half, but I told my players at the break to keep faith with the structure we had put in place.

"I knew that if we stayed solid, we would create chances and we had some good ones in the second half.

"Antoine Semenyo is a real handful and I wouldn't like to defend against him because he can go past you on either side. With a bit of luck, he would have scored or set up a goal.

"It was a good point in the circumstances and we can approach another big game at Reading on Saturday with confidence."