Aidy: We created enough chances

Watford supremo Aidy Boothroyd believed that Watford had enough chances to win their opening Premiership encounter at Goodison Park and also rued the referee`s decision to award Everton a dubious penalty.

"In a strange sort of way, I see it as a positive that we've been beaten by a decision like that," Aidy told the official site.

"It shows that we're more than capable of coming to a place like this and getting a result."

Of the 'penalty` incident Boothroyd said: "The referee's given it after his linesman pointed that way. The linesman had a terrific view but he's made a mistake. Having seen the incident, it's another example of how human error can decide a match."

"I believe we need to use everything that we can to make the officials' jobs easier and today's was an example of where using technology could have helped them make the right decision. Unfortunately, that does nothing to help us now."

Boothroyd rued his side`s missed opportunities: "It's simple, you have to take your chances and you have to stop the opposition from scoring. If you make a mistake, you get punished for it. Now we've got to get on with preparing to face West Ham on Tuesday."

"We created enough chances to get at least a point here. On another day, Damien (Francis) would have got three goals and Marlon (King) would have got one too," continued the gaffer.

"We didn't take our chances but I'm happy with how we played, obviously not ecstatic because we lost, but performance is important and I saw lots of positives out there today."

The pre-match match talking point was the inclusion of 19-year-old defender Adrian Mariappa at the expense of Jay DeMerit, one of Watford`s star players in last season`s promotion-winning campaign.

"Aidy Mariappa has been outstanding in pre-season and I'm always happy to give people a go, no matter what their age is," explained Aidy.

Despite the fact that the popular American was passed fit to play against the Toffees after sustaining an ankle injury Boothroyd admitted that he still had concerns about DeMerit`s fitness.

"I was a bit concerned about Jay DeMerit's fitness so it made sense to play Adrian. He deserved his chance - if people do well for me in training, they get a chance, simple as that."

However, Mariappa was swapped for last season`s play-off hero at the interval as the defence was beefed up. "I felt that we needed Jay's experience at half time. He defends on the front foot but that's not taking anything away from Mariappa, he's going to be a superb player for this football club," commented the Watford boss.

"I thought when Jay came on, we looked very solid and we were the better team in the second half."

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