TALKING in the wake of Monday's three-nil defeat to Ipswich Town for the second string, coach Malky Mackay has pointed to poor decision making in the face of a more experienced opposition, as the main reason behind the defeat.

Ipswich fielded a strong side on Monday evening at Boreham Wood with several first team contenders including David Norris, Danny Haynes, Alan Quinn and Dean Bowditch who has a league hat-trick against Watford to his name, all starting for the Tractor Boys.

The defeat will leave the reserves with a lot of work to do to qualify from their group in the Football Combination Challenge Cup with games against Charlton and QPR yet to come.

Watford's young side started off even worse than the first team did on Saturday, going 0-2 down within the first quarter of an hour, giving themselves a mountain too high to climb.

Mackay said: "Ipswich had a solid team out on Monday with a few experienced players.

"If you give a team half a chance you might get punished, if you give an experienced team half a chance then you will be punished.

"It's a learning experience for the boys to be 2-0 down early on."

The players will want to forget the opening exchanges of this match as soon as possible. The winning lead was gifted to Town by poor communication across the back, the second going in from a rebound.

However it is unlikely that Mackay will let them forget in a hurry. Making the right decisions, particularly defensively, at such a crucial stage of the game is something that this young squad is going to have to learn if they are to hack it at Championship level.

Consistency is a quality that every manager looks for in a player. It is this quality that Mackay is looking for the most from his young players, who have set themselves the target of featuring in the first team this season.

He added: "I've got a young, energetic squad of players that I expect higher standards from.

"When I see the standards that they set at Leyton Orient and some of them have figured in the first team since, I expect better than what we were given in the first half."

The second half display was much more encouraging for Watford as they opened up the game in search of reducing the deficit.

Mackay praised his centre-halves for coping with everything that Ipswich had to offer as they were left ever more exposed as the 'Orns continued to push forward.

In the attacking third, there were glimpses of the qualities we have come to expect from our young guns but no breakthrough was found.

A disappointed Mackay will not settle for mere glimpses however as it is consistency that will see these boys in contention for the first team.

He added:  "Gibson, Henderson and Young have been very good all the way through pre-season and I don't expect anything less from them now.

"They're all either playing or training at first team level so I expect more than flashes now, I expect it to be on a regular basis and I think all three of them know they can do much better than they did against Ipswich.

"They've set great standards and they don't need me to tell them they have certainly not reached those standards."

There is no doubting that there is a lot of ability coming through the ranks at the moment and Mackay is convinced that with more experience the decision making aspect of their game will improve.

"I think for some of the youngsters that's all it is, decision making, where they go to play a pass instead of slipping it through to someone that can score."

The decision making of the officials also frustrated the Hornets. A contentious late penalty decision killed off the game shortly after Billy Gibson had almost lost his shirt in the box at the other end.

Although some decisions are disappointing, players can do nothing about them. Mackay was quick to point out that attentions have to be focused enough to capitalise on the real chances that come their way.

"The players have got to learn to get over it quickly, very quickly, within a matter of seconds because that happens all the time at Championship level, decisions go against you and its how you rebound from that, how you get back in the game at get yourself focused again.

"If you're standing there arguing with someone or you're disappointed, standing there hanging your head, then you're out of the game.

"The other ten guys are trying to stop the other team from scoring while that's going on. So it's about not being selfish, being part of a team and making sure that as a team, you learn this.

"We had a couple of really great chances, glaring chances against Ipswich that we've not been clinical with.

"Overall the second half, as far as I'm concerned, I was pleased with the application that the youngsters showed against a particularly experienced Ipswich team."

One major positive was that Richard Lee was able to complete another 90 minutes unscathed after returning from injury.

Mackay was pleased with his display and marked out his professionalism as something for his young team mates to emulate.

He commented: "It's great to get Richard through because of the nature of the second half. We were very attack minded so he had a bit of business to deal with at his end and he pulled off two or three good saves tonight.

"His professionalism shines through when he comes to play in reserve games. I know he's one that the others should look at. He's second to none in terms of his enthusiasm and also the standards that he sets."

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