GARY Waddock said his team stopped Championship Watford from playing as they pushed them all the way in a losing cause.

There were few chances at either end during Wanderers’ Capital One Cup first round tie, which was settled with a goal near the end of extra time from Watford substitute Chris Iwelumo.

But Waddock was happy with the way Blues restricted their opponents to little more than half chances, with Nikki Bull not being called upon to make a serious save throughout the 90 minutes.

The Blues boss said: “The Watford players knew they had been in a game. We kept battling and plugging away – just a mistake has cost us in the end. It’s a positive day – unfortunately the result didn’t go our way.

“It was a very good performance by our lads. Probably one mistake, or error, has cost us and they punished us for it. Overall I thought we played extremely well.

“We restricted them, we stopped them playing. The organisation and discipline from the players was good. We’ve got to take that into the league campaign.”

Waddock said his side’s luck was out on a couple of occasions as Watford keeper Manuel Almunia got just enough on a Richard Logan shot to prevent Blues taking an early lead, before they were denied what he felt was a certain penalty in the dying embers of the game.

He said: “Logan’s had an opportunity first half which their keeper made a fantastic save from. I thought it might have spun the other way and spun in.”

Referring to their late penalty claim, which came after a Grant Basey cross appeared to strike a defender’s arm, Waddock said: “I thought it was a definite penalty from where I was. The referee was up with play – sometimes you get them, sometimes you don’t.”