Watford captain John Eustace knows his side need to secure a winning start to their Championship campaign in order to banish memories of last season's botched promotion bid.

The skipper, who suffered a thigh injury during the play-off semi-final defeat to Hull, admits he has still not managed to put the disappointment of last term behind him - but knows it is time for the Hornets to start looking forward.

"It was a long season and we all needed a break, but it gets to the point where you can do too much relaxing, now I can't wait to get back into training," he told the club's official website.

"I'm looking forward to coming back and seeing all the lads and then going to Austria on Thursday. I've been there a few times (with Stoke) and it's a really lovely area.

"It should be an ideal bonding time with a lot of hard work taking place.

"But the only way we'll get last season out of our system is to win games. The fact of the matter is, we lost our last game 4-1 and we need to recover from that. The only way to do that is to hit the ground running."