Watford boss Marco Silva refuses to comment after controversial loss

Watford manager Marco Silva refused to comment after an offside goal and Troy Deeney's sending off contributed to a controversial 4-1 defeat by Huddersfield at Vicarage Road.

The Hornets began sluggishly but were punished in controversial circumstances as Elias Kachunga was in an offside position when converting from Collin Quaner's cross.

After Aaron Mooy had extended the Terriers' lead, captain Deeney received a straight red card despite appearing to win the ball in a reckless challenge on Quaner - but Silva refrained from giving his opinion on the game's main talking points.

"First I want to congratulate our opponent," he said. "They won the match and it was a tough afternoon for us. Until the first goal we didn't perform well, but the game is balanced. After that, everything changed.

"The club will decide what the best solution is [regarding a potential appeal over Deeney's sending off]. We didn't start well but I don't want to talk about the first goal. I'm confident [we can get out of this bad spell].

Watford fell further behind five minutes into the second half after a mistake from Jose Holebas allowed Laurent Depoitre to rifle past Heurelho Gomes before Jonathan Hogg's sending-off and an excellent finish from Abdoulaye Doucoure briefly gave the hosts hope of a revival.

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But Huddersfield regained their composure as any hope of a comeback were extinguished in the final minute of normal time after Doucoure's foul on Depoitre inside the box allowed Mooy to fire in his second.

Silva was heralded for his excellent start to the season, which had the Hornets fourth in mid-October, but he has now recorded the same number of points (22) as Walter Mazzarri after 18 league games this term.

The Portuguese is aware that results must improve following a third straight loss but he is focused more on arresting the slide than what he cannot change.

He added: "We showed in some moments in the second half that our mentality is strong - even in the bad moments like we had today until half-time.

"We tried to react and our players showed hard work and a strong mentality but we made some mistakes that at this level you can't make. The other things I don't want to talk about."

"Today is different than last Tuesday, but we cannot change what's happened in the past. We must work and prepare for the next game.

"You need to take the good things we have done until now and avoid the mistakes we made this afternoon."