Vladimir Ivic knows his Watford side will need to adapt to the physicality of the Championship if they are to achieve their goal of promotion this season.

Following a punishing evening at Adams Park in which Ben Foster was required to keep the scores down the Hornets squandered a lead for the second game in a row, with Wycombe Wanderers stealing a point from the Hornets.

Players like Adebayo Akinfenwa and Anthony Stewart outmuscled Ivic's men in the match and really should have taken all three points.

Looking ahead to the remainder of the campaign, the Serbian said his players needed to toughen up.

"It's a physical job in the Championship." said Ivic. "I cannot say that we don't have strong players or tall players. We have them but we need to adapt because the Championship is totally different to the Premier League and we must play with our power, with our body a lot of times and I don't speak just about the defensive line, it's the midfield players and the strikers too. In this moment it's like this and I believe that we will learn a lot of things after this game.

"I spoke with [the players] and explained to them about who we were playing against and we expected it to be a very tough game. For me it was one of the strongest games today. I spoke with them and I just tried to inform them before the game that yes they have zero points, but they don't deserve this position because in a lot of previous games they were good and had a lot of chances, but they stayed without points. They got one today.

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"We need to think about our performance, it was not good today and we don't have a lot of time to improve it because the next game is on Saturday and we just need to learn and to be better."

As well as poor defending from set pieces, Ivic has repeatedly spoken about his side's need to be more clinical in attack.

The head coach has been frustrated by injuries keeping his striking options out of contention, but he expects to have a full choice again before long.

"In attack we have one young striker who has been available to play from the beginning," he said. "We have Glenn Murray who's joined us, but in this system how we play, most of the time we play with one striker and we're waiting for some of them to come back, to be ready for the games. We must work, we must improve our games in attack and in defence."

Two players who are available for selection again are Andre Gray and Will Hughes, but both were rested further instead of being included in the squad for the game at Wycombe. Ivic expects the pair to play a part at Oakwell against Barnsley this weekend.

"I believe that they will be with us maybe for the next game," he said. "But now it's a question of if they will be available and how long they can play. If they will be ready for some part of the game, we'll let them play."

One player who could be set for some time on the sidelines is Christian Kabasele who is due to undergo a scan following an injury to his face at Adams Park.

"It was a kick in his face," Ivic added. "I don't know [how serious it is] now. He needs a scan and then we will know afterwards."