Joe Allen laughed off Troy Deeney gouging his cheek in the battle of claw and order at Vicarage Road, admitting: “I have a bad habit of picking the wrong fights.”
But the fall-out will be no laughing matter for Watford captain Deeney, who faces a retrospective three-match ban for clamping the Stoke midfielder's face with his bare hands.
Both clubs are likely to be hammered with charges for failing to control their players after a feisty contest twice boiled over into mass confrontations.
Earlier this month, Hornets talisman Deeney trolled Arsenal for lacking the stomach for a fight.
But if the FA hawks clamp down on Troy the tempest, Deeney will be able to reflect at leisure on the difference between no cojones and two brawls.
Allen insisted: “It was handbags really and there was nothing to it. I like Troy, he's one of the good guys, he's a really good player and it was nothing personal.
“We were clinging on at the end and expecting the ball back because we had a man down injured, they were chasing the equaliser and decided to play on.
“I was disappointed to get a yellow card because it means I'm now walking a bit of a tightrope, but these things happen and there wasn't really anything to it.
“He's a big guy and we were both laughing – I knew I was beaten in that situation, but I have a bit of a bad habit of picking the wrong fights!”
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Deeney later appeared in the crowd at his mate Anthony Joshua's big fight in Cardiff, but Stoke manager Mark Hughes was unimpressed with the mismatch of a heavyweight taking on a welterweight on the undercard.
Hughes sneered: “Clearly we kicked the ball out and the right thing to do, in the spirit of the game, is to throw it back. Deeney, the captain of the club, should know better but he shaped to play it intio our box and that's why Joe reacted.
“More often than not, those situations get revisited by people in authority and decisions are made as a consequence.”
Sparky, who complained about Bournemouth's timewasting the previous week, had no qualms about his own side resorting to so-called game 'management' and Stoke were no angels here – but the Potters were deserving winners.
Darren Fletcher's volley, on his 101st consecutive Premier League appearance – the longest current run in the division - proved enough to hand under-pressure Hughes his first away win.
But the Potters' confidence is still as brittle as a Wedgwood china tea set falling out of a tree, and even though it took dopey Watford an hour to muster their first shot, Brazilian discovery Richarlison squandered two yawning chances to salvage a point.
Spanish defender Kiko Femenia, who was among the cast of eight yellow cards, admitted the late scuffling did nothing to help the Hornets' cause and he admitted: “In the first half, we were not our normal selves - we threw it away.”