Rodgers eyes bright future

The Hornets strolled to a 3-1 victory thanks to first-half goals from Jobi McAnuff and Grzegorz Rasiak (two), with John Eustace netted a late consolation for Derby.

Much of Watford's season has been spent in a battle to beat the drop, but the progress made by Rodgers has been such that only Sheffield Wednesday's victory over Cardiff prevented the Hornets finishing in the top half of the table.

The manager said: "It was good to see the motivation of the players.

"I said a few months ago that our season will not finish until the last whistle goes against Derby and the players have made me proud."

The Northern Irishman continued: "We have made progress this year, my job next year is to make real progress.

"I didn't come to be comfortable, I want to enjoy the pressure and some of me didn't enjoy today because there was no real pressure."

Clough reaction

Nigel Clough is also keen for the Rams to 'improve' next season, while he did not feel the result was a reasonable reflection of the game.

Asked if it was a fair result, Clough responded "Probably not. I thought we created enough chances and if we had got the first goal we might have run out 3-1 winners.

"But if we are going to be giving goals away like that we will not get anything out of the game."