Watford fans will accept bad decisions made in good faith, so long as they have a club that tries.

If fans had been present at the final whistle of Watford’s late 2-1 loss to QPR on Monday, the team probably would have been on the end of the most vicious reception any Watford side has received in a generation and it might have been exactly what they needed.

Watford fans are some of the fairest and most patient in the world.

They know that they don’t have the same knowledge of football finance as the owners do, so (apart from a core group on Twitter) they are hardly going to call for the board to be sacked just because Etienne Capoue was replaced by Dan Gosling in the January transfer window.

They like to see good football, but for 99% it’s not the reason they tune into games.

All they want to see is a club that tries.

Watford have had bad owners before (a category nobody could seriously put the Pozzo family into) but in those instances the team have typically stepped in to inspire the community and lift spirits.

However on every single front, on and off the pitch, Watford Football Club is currently falling short.

When Ben Foster uses a goalkeeping error to promote his YouTube channel, he must know that is not appropriate.

When Troy Deeney mocks the owners on national radio, he must know that is not appropriate.

When Andre Gray is found to have hosted a party during lockdown but still goes ahead with a poker game months later, he must know that is not appropriate.

And when Scott Duxbury says he is aware that mistakes were made and his efforts to keep the club in the Premier League were not good enough, he must realise that it is a sign of strength not weakness to explain what some of the mistakes were and own them rather than disdainfully dodging a fan’s questions.

Yet all these things keep happening.

These are not difficult issues to solve. They are no more challenging than going on a diet, or deciding that rather than coasting through a 9-5 job you are willing to think every minute about how you can be a success.

All that is needed is for the trio that have effectively ruled the club over the past 8 years – Gino Pozzo, Scott Duxbury and Troy Deeney – to look in the mirror and ask themselves ‘am I really doing my best’?

Then when they realise the answer is ‘no’ – it can’t possibly be ‘yes’ – they need to project that onto the rest of the staff.

If they can’t do that then they never did understand what Watford Football Club is about.