At least the Hornets' return to the Championship was not caused by a defeat.
That would have been harsh on Aidy Boothroyd's men as, with only a few exceptions, they have not failed to give of their best at English football's top table.
It looked like their fate would be secured that way when an uncharacteristic howler from England keeper Ben Foster gifted Darius Vassell the chance to give Manchester City the lead.
But the game had a distinct end-of-season feel to it from the outset and, although Watford rarely looked like equalising, it was not particularly surprising when they did through Hungarian substitute Tamas Priskin.
The fact City didn't launch a sustained push for a second goal after being pegged back said much about their lack of ambition in the game.
In truth though, a thriller never looked on the cards between the Premiership's lowest and joint second lowest scoring teams and the first half lived up - or should that be down - to the lack of pre-match hype.
Watford started with a semblance of the urgency you would expect from a side knowing they needed to win to preserve their top-flight status.
But, as the opening period wore on, they increasingly got drawn into the subdued nature of the contest.
An injury to Damien Francis midway through the opening period admittedly didn't help the home side and forced Boothroyd to shelve the diamond midfield he had started the game with.
Some of Boothroyd's troops didn't look comfortable with the new-look shape, but they appeared even more confused when striker Steve Kabba took Francis' place and adopted a wide right position in a reshuffled 4-5-1 turned 4-3-3 line-up.
Stuart Pearce also suffered a first-half injury setback, losing DeMarcus Beasley to an apparent hamstring problem but, by contrast to their opponents, Ishmael Miller slipped seamlessly into City's tried and tested 4-1-4-1 formation.
Pearce might feel that shape works best for his best but it doesn't offer much of a goal threat on the evidence of what was served up.
Indeed it needed Watford to present them with their only on target attempt of the match that Vassell clinically dispatched.
There appeared to be no danger when Lloyd Doyley struck a back pass back to his keeper on his favoured left foot, but Foster appeared to lose concentration and only succeeded in guiding the ball back into no man's land where Vassell didn't need a second invitation, guiding the ball back past the stranded Watford number one with a low curling effort.
The Hornets were down and almost out but, to their credit, they did respond.
Douglas Rinaldi dispossessed Joey Barton and advanced before playing a delightful slide-rule pass into the path of Priskin, who steadied himself and then calmly slid the ball past Andreas Isaksson.