Good early signs for Watford fans eager to see which way the wind blows for new assembly of personnel

What would be have made of it all? Picture by @YTJourno

Championship

Watford (2) 2 Bravo 12, Nabizada 25

Southampton (0) 1 Larin 56

Here we go again - with the usual set of imponderables about what is to come for the Hornets.

Will this Italian-flavoured club finally get back on track? Is the new boss going to buck the revolving door trend for managers at Vicarage Road? And just who are half of these players in yellow and black that we've not seen before?

For now, no-one will worry two much. They showed the right levels of energy and enterprise to eke out a 2-0 lead and then held on well after Saints hit back in the second half.

A grand total of two players in the starting line-up for this one began the last match of last season against Coventry City - skipper Mattie Pollock and Othmane Maamma. Talk about unpredictability. The squad, like the manager, is an eternally movable feast.

The eyes of the wider football community may be on what happens next with the unsaintly Saints following the Spygate scandal that saw them kicked out of the play-offs last season - "We're Southampton, we spy when we want," sang their fans - but Watford fans have eyes only on their own club's fortunes.

In that respect they will have liked the instant impression made by one of those new arrivals. Iker Bravo, the 21-year-old Spaniard brought in from Udinese, seized on a mishit ball from a defender towards the middle, racing between three defenders and drifting between two of them before clipping the ball into the far corner past keeper Daniel Peretz.

Another - Italian midfielder Edoardo Bove - combined well with Maamma before the latter almost squeezed in a second with a low shot at the near post but then came goal number two following another piece of smart opportunism after a Saints mistake.

Amin Nabidzaba, a teenager of Afghanistani parentage making his first start after a handful of sub appearances last term, had a moment he will never forget as he bagged a first ever senior goal.

He picked up the loose ball and set off on dazzling charge down the right that the visitors simply failed to stop. On and on he went before darting in and firing a low shot across Peretz into the far corner from an acute angle. He may never score as good a goal again.

Saints pulled a goal back before the hour was up when Cyle Larin poked home after being found in the area by Cameron Bragg and the striker almost made it 2-2 moments later with a powerful shot that new keeper Federico Ravaglia managed to push around a post.

The visitors sensed they might get something out of this game after all and sub Finn Azaz shaved a post with a low shot to Ravaglia's right and in a game of nine bookings, tempers started to rise - Flynn Downes and Maamma going head to head in a bit of macho squaring up.

There was more of that in injury time when Taylor Harewood-Bellis - who always has plenty to say for himself - almost stole in for an equaliser and Peretz was up for the final corners during a frantic finish. But it ended as new Hornets boss Alessio Dionisi hoped it would.

Hornets: (4-2-3-1) Ravaglia - Traore, Pollock, Keben, Bola (Zemura 24) - Bove (Kayembe 62), Kyprianou - Maamma (Vata 77), Bravo (Payero 62), Nabizada (Adu-Poku 62) - Doumbia

Saints: (4-2-3-1) Peretz - Bree, Harwood-Bellis, Stephens, Manning - Downes, Bragg (Edozie 70) - Leo Scienza, Matsuki (Brereton Diaz 89), Dobbin (Azaz 56) - Larin (Mubamba 70)

Attendance: 19,542