Javi Gracia hails hat-trick hero Tom Ince after Watford beat Birmingham

Watford manager Javi Gracia saluted hat-trick hero Tom Ince after the striker lifted his side to within three points of the Championship automatic promotion places with a convincing 3-0 win over Birmingham at Vicarage Road.

Ince sent a cushioned volley from a fine diagonal cross by Giorgi Chakvetadze into the bottom corner after nine minutes.

He then swept home at the second attempt after being found by Othmane Maamma as half-time approached before completing his first Championship hat-trick since netting one for Derby in December 2015 with a rasping left-foot shot.

Gracia said: “I am delighted for Tom because all the players deserve their reward of scoring goals.

“He’s a high-quality player.

“He can play on the left or the right, can play on both sides and he’s always involved in the planning of the game.

“If we need to defend more on one side, he is always ready to do that job and he’s an example for all the players.”

Ince has expressed his intention to follow father Paul in taking his coaching badges, but Gracia is grateful to have him as a player for now.

Gracia added: “They were all different goals because Tom is able to do that. He has the quality to do it.

“He scored three goals today but I know that tomorrow he will be the first one in the training session preparing the next game. He will accept it if he is in the team or on the bench and we need this kind of behaviour.

“With the characteristics that he has, he can be a coach in the future because he understands the different moments of the game and he knows why we do this or why we do that.

“But I suppose he will want to play a long career and I hope that he enjoys that first.”

Watford’s win was their fourth successive victory over the festive period. They have collected 17 points from a possible 21 since losing the reverse fixture at St Andrew’s on December 1.

While Gracia is enjoying the holiday period, Birmingham manager Chris Davies is experiencing a troubling run of seven games without a win that has seen his side slip into the bottom half of the Championship table.

Davies said: “It was very disappointing. We were nowhere near the level required to win a football match. We didn’t defend well enough at all in the first half and we conceded soft goals.

“When we got into their box, it kind of fizzled out. We put ourselves in a really difficult position against a good team when we are playing away from home.

“We’ve had games recently where we’ve narrowly lost or where we’ve drawn when we deserved to win a match but on this occasion, we didn’t deserve anything from the match.

“It was well short of the level you expect from a Birmingham City team.

“In the second half, we needed energy and a reaction, with fighting spirit to get back into the game but we couldn’t force anything.

“We were missing some important players through injury and suspension, no doubt about that, but I still expect more than we saw today.

“We were second best. Everything that could have gone wrong, went wrong and I feel for the travelling fans.”