Walter Mazzarri was keeping an open mind as Watford moved into the top half of the Premier League table on Sunday.

The Hornets edged Middlesbrough 1-0 at the Riverside Stadium to sneak into 10th position having won three and drawn two of their eight league matches so far this season.

When asked if his side were capable of producing a top-half finish this term, Mazzarri was preferring to take a game-by-game approach.

"I have told my players that we need to focus game-by-game. I don't put myself any limits on what we can do this year, but I don't want to look at the league table now," he said.

"It's important that we correct the mistakes that we do every game and look game-by-game to see where we can get.

"I am very happy about the result. It was very difficult to play in a stadium like Middlesbrough where they had the whole crowd on their side and they pressed for the whole game. They are a very organised team.

"On the performance, it was very good defensively, but I think we can do better in the overall performance of the game - we have done much better in other games.

"We played better in the games before this, except for Burnley."

Greek full-back Jose Holebas scored the only goal of the game with a powerful drive from outside the area on 54 minutes.