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Slavisa Jokanovic rages at referee after Watford's draw with Sheffield Wednesday

Watford Head Coach Slavisa Jokanovic and goalkeeper Heurelho Gomes celebrate promotion to the Premier League
Image: Slavisa Jokanovic: Unhappy with the referee

Slavisa Jokanovic pointed the finger of blame squarely at referee Lee Probert after Watford were denied the Sky Bet Championship title by an injury-time equaliser against Sheffield Wednesday in a 1-1 draw at Vicarage Road.

The Hornets head coach felt his side should have been awarded a penalty after 10 minutes when Troy Deeney went down under a challenge from Chris Kirkland, and he also believed Atdhe Nuhiu was offside prior to equalising.

A first-half goal from Matej Vydra had put the Hornets on course to win the division, but their inability to add to their lead would return to haunt them when substitute Nuhiu equalised with the Owls' only on-target attempt of the match.

Watford had been on the receiving end of a poor Probert decision in January when he sent off Gabriele Angella just 27 seconds into their 2-0 loss at champions Bournemouth - a red card which was subsequently rescinded.

Jokanovic said: "We made mistakes during the game but the referee didn't give a penalty, it's a clear penalty and inside the last second of the game Nuhiu was offside 100 per cent - I am sure of that.

"I remember this referee from Bournemouth but this is a frustrating part of the Championship. He made one mistake, we don't make a mistake in front of our goal, in front of the opposite goal we had many chances but we didn't score [a second goal] but this is history."

The Serbian acknowledged the failure to win the division had taken some of the shine off Watford's promotion celebrations but he is already planning for the top flight.

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Watford missed out on the Sky Bet Championship title after being held to a 1-1 home draw by Sheffield Wednesday

He said: "Promotion to the Premier League was our first target. We're disappointed we don't lift silverware, this was our dream, but now we must start thinking about what is in front of us.

"It's going to be a very complicated, very tough, very difficult competition, we will play in one of the more important, more quality competitions in the world and it's time to start working now to try and build a team for fighting and to be competitive for the competition that is in front of us."

Owls head coach Stuart Gray admitted his side were fortunate to still be in the game at half time.

He said: "It feels like a huge point because at half time I just could not believe we were only 1-0 down.

"That was probably one of the worst 45 minutes we've had. We were so disappointing.

"We were like a rabbit in the headlights. We gave them far too much respect, we stood off them, our passing was poor and then they created chance after chance.

"I said to them at half time, 'you know in this game of football, there's 90-odd minutes to play' and a few words were said and I got a response from the players, so the pleasing thing was we've taken a point.

"They might think we nicked a point, but I felt around the 60-minute mark we started coming on to our game.

"Our ball retention was better, our passing was better and we broke two or three times and possibly we could have broke there at the end and won the game."

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