Gianfranco Zola believes last night's first-half performance against Peterborough United provided plenty of optimism heading into the new season.

The Italian also highlighted the importance of new signing Iriney after the Brazilian made his first appearance for the club at London Road.

The Hornets drew 1-1 with Peterborough after a slightly disappointing second half but the visitors impressed greatly during the opening 45 minutes despite not scoring.

Zola said: "I thought the first half was one of the best performances I have seen from this team; in terms of the way they moved the ball up the pitch, the balance and we created a lot of chances. I knew because of the work they have put in the last few days that the end product would be what suffered the most.

"But the quality of the football is really good and we are looking really good.

"In the second half, the players on the pitch were tired and those that came on tried too hard to impress and did more than they should. The position of the two wide players also caused us a lot of problems because they were too high up the pitch.

"I take a lot of positives out of the game though; we are really going the way I wanted and we can look forward with a lot of positivity."

On his side's failure to be clinical in the first half, Zola added: "We even trained this morning so when you are working like that, it is easy to lose the freshness that gives you the extra bit.

"I am not concerned and in normal conditions it would be different.

"I saw what I needed to see at this stage; the ball moving fast around the pitch, good organisation and good balance overall. So I am delighted."

Iriney, who yesterday completed his permanent move from Granada, was meant to be on the bench but a minor calf injury to Jonathan Hogg meant he was promoted to the starting XI.

The 32-year-old barely made a mistake and showed he was more than just a ball-winning midfielder with some lovely passes.

Lewis McGugan and Almen Abdi also linked up well during the first half as the Hornets created a host of shooting opportunities.

Zola said: "I thought Iriney and McGugan were the two most positive players. Iriney does exactly what needs to be done, he is always in a good position and plays simple. He was really good.

"He was probably only behind McGugan in terms of performance. Lewis today was really good."

Watford were looking for a ready-made replacement for John Eustace following the former captain's departure and Zola believes they have found him in Iriney.

Zola said: "We wanted to improve the quality in the two midfielders and then have somebody with more balance further back and we believe Iriney can give us an advantage.

"He is coming on very well and I am expecting (Davide) Faraoni to step up his game as well. When that happens, we will have a lot of options to create the opposition problems."

Click here to read last night's match report.