Watford keeper Bachmann sorry for costly mistakes

Daniel Bachmann joined Watford from Stoke City in the summer of 2017

Watford goalkeeper Daniel Bachmann apologised to team-mates and supporters after his two early errors condemned them to defeat at Leeds United.

The Austrian fumbled Largie Ramazani's shot into the net after only three minutes and then failed to hold a cross, allowing Brenden Aaronson to add a second.

The Hornets gave a much improved performance following Saturday's 3-0 derby defeat at Luton Town, but could only pull one goal back and lost 2-1.

"The way the game started, it was an uphill battle again, and obviously I've let the lads down," Bachmann told BBC Three Counties Radio.

"As a goalkeeper, if you make a mistake, there's only one outcome. That's all part of the game but I just feel disappointed because of the way the lads played and deserved a bit more."

Bachmann returned to the team against Luton, having been out for almost a month because of a quad injury, but he insisted that was not a contributory factor.

"First goal, I couldn't tell you what it was. Obviously these balls are moving a lot (in the air) these days, (I was) caught in two minds and it slipped through," he said.

"I've been quite fortunate, it's the first error I've made like that throughout my career, and the second one, the cross got deflected, I saw a striker in the corner of my eye, there was a lot of spin on the ball but I've got to catch it."

Watford are eighth in the Championship following their back-to-back defeats, just two points outside the play-off places, and will look to bounce back in Saturday's home game against Blackburn Rovers.

Bachmann insisted that despite the result at Elland Road, there were plenty of positives to take away.

"I don't think many teams come to a place like this and play the way we did for periods of the first half and certainly most of the second half," he added.

"For a big part of the game, I think our fans were louder than theirs and that says a lot about the performance so I can just apologise to the fans who travelled such a long way to watch us play that way and lose because of mistakes I made."

Following the game, Hornets boss Tom Cleverley defended his goalkeeper.

"Just two freak mistakes that you don't normally see from Daniel. He's one of the best shotstoppers in the league and he's won us far more points than he has lost us," he told BBC Three Counties Radio.

"We went through a really strong fitness test with him because we didn't want a repeat of Saturday where you could see after 10 minutes he wasn't fit. The goals were nothing to do with that."