Watford manager Sean Dyche felt Watford were unlucky to see their eight-match unbeaten run ended in the 2-0 defeat to Portsmouth.
Striker Marko Futacs opened the scoring for dominant Pompey in the 54th minute, heading home his second goal in as many games, and Hayden Mullins slotted the late second past Jonathan Bond, who came on following the dismissal of Scott Loach.
Dyche said: "We were slightly off it. We have set the bar quite high. First half I thought we did okay and made some 'nearly' moments.
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Second half it was a tough one for us.
There was a lot going against us and we found it tough to keep going.
"No lack of effort or organisation, just players not on their game. We knew we could bring the game to Portsmouth but a lot of circumstances made that very difficult.
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Everyone is of the same opinion with Scott.
I have seen it again and it was another incident that did not go our way and I felt there was a lot that didn't go our way."