The game had not reached half-time on Sunday when several choruses of “sack the board” had echoed around Vicarage Road.
The players — and Andy Carroll in particular — were also the object of the away supporters’ ire and, to be fair, you could not blame them.
The one thing you expect when a new manager takes over, especially one with the experience and nous of David Moyes, is that there is an immediate, positive reaction.
It did not happen.
Slaven Bilic’s successor, and his staff, had worked diligently on the training pitch all week in an effort to raise the players’ intensity and durability. But all that went out of the window as early as the 10th minute after Will Hughes had put Watford ahead.
By then, Carroll had already put himself on the naughty step when, just a few seconds after kick-off, his elbow caught full-back Marvin Zeegelaar. He escaped punishment but was later booked by referee Andre Marriner for a different offence and was substituted in the second half as a red card looked more and more likely. Watford added a second after 64 minutes through Richarlison.
West Ham supporters, unimpressed with Carroll’s suggestion following the 4-1 defeat by Liverpool two weeks ago that perhaps they should stay until the end of matches, left him in no doubt about what they thought of those comments — and his display.
Moyes, meanwhile, was distinctly unimpressed with his new team’s anaemic performance, in what was his 500th Premier League match as a manager.
In truth, though, he was hamstrung from the start by the absence of three of his best offensive players — Michail Antonio and Javier Hernandez, who were both injured, plus Andre Ayew, who was ill.
He will also have taken come comfort from the improved form and direction of Mark Arnautovic before he went off with a suspected broken thumb. Moyes, though, is not a man to pull his punches or worry over much about players’ sensibilities. “We need to build confidence and get some togetherness. It’s tough for the players — I can sense that but I didn’t enjoy the performance,” he said.
“There were some players with big reputations who disappointed me a little bit. I thought, ‘You’ll show me more and show me why you play in the team regularly’. This was the first time I’d had the chance to see them play but — if they have that reputation — they need to show me why they’ve got it.
“We gave the ball away too cheaply, too many times. It wasn’t good enough and it needs to get better.”
Asked about the fans’ anger, he said: “I don’t know the history and all the reasons for it because I’m only just here. They were supportive of me and I’m thankful for that but I have to say we need them now, we need a united club.
“Those supporters will know much better than me about the history but I said to the players at the end that it’s tough to play when the crowd are like that. I can understand the supporters’ feelings, though, because I didn’t think we played well enough at times in the second half.
“I expected more in everything. We gave the ball away really cheaply. I thought we defended okay but then gave away cheap goals. With the first goal we got bumped off the ball three times with three half challenges and we don’t really well enough.
“I just thought we didn’t do well enough in all the departments at different times but we did create one or two chances which could have changed the outcome because goals change games.”
The criticism of Carroll also came as a shock to Moyes.
“I was surprised because Andy has tried to do everything on training, tried to be correct in everything he’s done,” he said. “I actually thought that right from the start, whenever he goes in for a challenge, the opposition crowd are going to make it really difficult and affect the referee.
“At half-time there was a decision to make because I wasn’t sure that Andy wasn’t going to get himself sent off. I told him I would be taking him off after 10 or 15 minutes of the second half.
“The club needs to be together. I can only try to get wins which hopefully will make the supporters feel a bit better about the players and the team. Overall, I didn’t think it was good enough. It needs to get much better.”