ASSISTANT coach Ruben Martinez insisted Watford should have been awarded second-half penalty before their late equaliser in Saturday’s 1-1 draw with Cherries.

It took a sumptuous volley from defender Craig Cathcart to secure a share of the spoils for the Hornets following Harry Arter’s ripsnorter at Vicarage Road.

Martinez, in charge while boss Oscar Garcia recovers from illness, declared himself pleased with the draw but felt the hosts had been denied an earlier opportunity to level from 12 yards when Cherries defender Simon Francis tangled with Ikechi Anya in the penalty area.

“Watching the chances Bournemouth had and watching our chances I thought it was a fair result,” said Martinez.

“But maybe if the referee had seen the penalty on Ikechi it might have been different.

“The defender was asleep in the box and at the last moment he pushed Ikechi. For me, I felt it was a penalty.”

Meanwhile, Martinez acknowledged that Cherries’ midfield three had enjoyed dominant spells in the game and that it took a change of shape to instigate Watford’s fight-back.

Martinez added: “We started with three midfielders because we knew it would be a possibility (that AFC Bournemouth would play three in midfield) but when we were losing we decided to put (Odion) Ighalo on as another striker and it was a good result for us.

“We played against a good team, a team that has had two years working with the same coach and the same players so it was difficult because we have to build a new team.”