Adrian Mariappa feels three points against Huddersfield Town tomorrow is now even more vital given the Hornets’ late capitulation at Crystal Palace on Tuesday.

The 31-year-old has been a surprise first-team regular this season and played 90 minutes at Selhurst Park in midweek.

Given his affinity to Watford, where he rose through the ranks before leaving the club – and eventually rejoining from the Eagles last year – few members of the squad will have felt the crushing disappointment more than the Jamaican international.

“We need to just stick together as a group and believe in what we’re doing,” said the defender.

“We have to crack on for the next game, we’ve got a big game this Saturday at home and we need to get a positive result.

“The boys have been terrific this season, we’ve scored more than one goal on the road in every game before Palace, but we’re not always going to score two or three away from home.

“It’s down to us as a team, we always attack as a team and defend as a team, we will look at it and see where we can improve.”

Late defeats are becoming a familiar feeling for Watford, after losing from 2-0 up at Everton in early November and also blowing a 2-1 lead with 20 minutes left at Chelsea the month prior.

Attacking has rarely been an issue for the Hornets during this campaign, and before Saturday’s defeat at Burney they had scored at least twice in each of their games away from home – including visits to Chelsea, Southampton and Newcastle.

But shipping four at Stamford Bridge, three at Goodison Park and two goals inside the final minutes at Selhurst Park on Tuesday has cost Silva and his team nine valuable Premier League points.

That would otherwise have seen them enjoying the kind of plaudits Sean Dyche is earning at the moment – with Burnley nine ahead of Watford, and currently sitting outside the top four only via goal difference.

But as it is, the Hornets’ fragile defence needs to improve even before the transfer window opens in just over a fortnight’s time, as they face a season-defining run of four games in 14 days before the turn of the year.

Mariappa added: “Obviously we’re gutted to come away with no points, I thought we were in control of the game for pretty much most of it and then we conceded two late goals.

“It’s something we need to look at and address because we know it’s not good enough.

“We’ve seen games out this season, but we’ll look at the goals individually. It’s not great on our part, but like I said we will look at it and aim to do better going forward.”

Even with Tom Cleverley’s red card three minutes from time, Watford had kept Palace at arms’ length for the majority of their game in South West London on Tuesday night.

It would be easy to suggest that moment changed the game, and it will rule the crucial cog in Silva’s midfield out of tomorrow’s clash, but with a fully-formed defence, Watford should have been able to see the game out.

Certainly Mariappa hopes the disappointment of defeat can be used as a springboard going forward, and help the Hornets to be more clinical in seeing out games in the future.

“We felt in control of the game,” he said.

“They’ve got a lot of good attacking players and for most of the game they were kept very quiet.

“I thought we looked in control and created some other good chances as well, so to come away with nothing is really disappointing.

“At the end of the day we had the one-nil lead and we should have come away with a clean sheet.