Watford manager Adrian Boothroyd is in no mood to relax despite seeing his side increase their lead at the top of the Coca-Cola Championship to six points.

Tommy Smith and Marlon King scored the goals as as lowly Crystal Palace were brushed aside 2-0 at Selhurst Park.

Smith struck in the 32nd minute with his second goal of the season, finishing from an angle after Julian Speroni had blocked King's close-range effort.

King grabbed his fifth in as many matches after the break, but despite the Hornets securing a fifth straight win, Boothroyd remains typically guarded about their promotion hopes.

"There are plenty of teams who can stop us. It's a very open league and anyone can beat anyone on any given day," said Boothroyd.

"You're only ever one game away from a 4-1 hammering, as we've already found out. But being six points clear does protect us from a sticky spell.

"It wasn't a vintage performance but we have players who can win games and I think the result was fair. If we can be consistent and keep winning games it puts pressure on the other teams.

"I'm not thinking about the Premier League because we're a Championship team and we have a job to do. But there's a nice confidence about us in that even when we don't play well we think we can win games."

Boothroyd also warned any Premier League vultures off a January raid for King, who took his tally for the season to seven with a smart turn and shot from the edge of the area.

"We're not a club that needs the money. We need to build, not to be taken apart," he added.

Worringly for Palace, the Hornets barely had to break into a sweat, barring the opening 15 minutes when Neil Warnock's new-look side briefly looked like posing a threat.

But Watford's class eventually told to leave Warnock still searching for his first victory in charge and Palace languishing in the bottom three.

Warnock had promised to give the players he inherited five games to prove themselves, but he had seen enough after just two and made five changes to the side beaten 3-1 by Stoke.

Teenage left-back Lee Hills and on-loan Portsmouth winger Franck Songo'o were handed debuts while on the bench was midfielder John Bostock, who came on in the 72nd minute to become Palace's youngest player aged just 15 years and 287 days.

Warnock said: "I didn't have too many options so it was a matter of making one or two a changes and I'm ever so pleased.

"If we'd played like that against Stoke I think we'd have won. Watford are top of the league and flying. They're good at what they do and that's why I think they'll win the league."

Warnock also revealed centre-half Leon Cort is in talks about a switch to Stoke, with Clint Hill likely to move in the opposite direction.