Watford’s togetherness is at the heart of their success this season, according to defender Adrian Mariappa.

The centre-back praised the philosophy of head coach Javi Gracia and said the club’s recent good form comes from the side working together for a common cause.

The Hornets are currently sat in eighth place in the Premier League, just one point behind Wolverhampton Wanderers who they will face in the FA Cup semi-final in April and Mariappa said the club are desperate to ensure they finish the season positively.

“We don’t want to peter out again, we want to try and finish as high as we can with as many points as we can,” he said.

“Who knows where that’ll be but we’ll be giving it our best.

“This season the lads have shown great togetherness, for me that’s come from the manager, the way we train and we’re fully confident we can go and beat anyone this season.

“You can see where we are in the league and it’s not by chance or by fluke, we deserve to be in the position we are.

“The whole squad’s pulling in the same direction, all believing in the gaffer’s philosophy of trying to do it together - everyone’s bought into that.”

As well as Gracia’s philosophy, Mariappa spoke of his passion for the role and said it was helping to keep the team fired up.

He said: “He’s very passionate and demands a lot from the players. He starts in training day in day out, he demands everyone is at it. We’re training hard, that’s all we can do, and the performances take care of themselves.”