Roy Hodgson admitted Watford were not good enough to win after they fell to a 2-0 home defeat to Brighton.
Neal Maupay and Adam Webster were on target for the Seagulls, who extended their Premier League unbeaten run which stretches back to December 15.
Watford have now yet to score in the three matches since the former England manager took the helm and have just one point to show for it.
“My thoughts are that we weren’t good enough to win it,” Hodgson said.
“I thought our first-half performance was much worse than I was expecting it to be. Having analysed the last two games, we’ve seen the players in training, we had high hopes.
“But certainly in the first half, we did a lot to dash those hopes ourselves. I thought the second half, we did start more brightly. I thought we did show a bit more confidence and play the sort of football that I’ve been expecting to see the team play.
“And then, because we concede that that goal just before half-time, we felt the need to pile some attackers onto the field in order to try and get a goal back, which almost worked for us with (Emmanuel) Dennis’ shot against the crossbar.
“But it also led to some counter-attacking opportunities for Brighton which they were able to take and put the game beyond our reach with about 10 minutes to go.”
Ismaila Sarr was introduced at half-time in one of two changes made at the break by Hodgson and the Senegal international, who had only taken part in training for the first time on Friday following his Africa Cup of Nations success, looked to get forward and create chances on his first appearance for Watford since November.
“He’s a player that we are hoping, going forward, will give us something a bit extra,” Hodgson said when asked about the forward.
“But it was a big ask for him today, having come back from Africa and the celebrations from Senegal winning the cup, sort of asked more of him that he was able to give us today.”
Brighton manager Graham Potter praised his side’s victory as they put in another consistent performance.
“My reaction is a really, really good performance and a really good result,” he said.
“I thought we played a really good game, I thought we reacted well throughout the game, good reactions when we lost the ball, good patience when we had the ball, tried to attack.
“It’s not easy against Roy’s teams because they defend well. You’ve got to be patient and wait for the opportunity to attack and we did well.
“I think our subs helped us and we wrestled it back and finished the game strongly, so credit to the players.”
