ASSISTANT manager Sean Dyche told www.watfordfc.com that the tough experience of being knocked out of the Carling Cup on Tuesday will have taught the young Golden Boys about the harsh realities of competitve football.

Watford have an unbeaten league record so far this season, with the only defeat being on Tuesday in the Carling Cup Second Round against Notts County.

"We haven't really missed an opportunity" said Watford's Assistant manager about losing out in the Cup tie. "It's just the reality of football."

"The lads were excellent for the first half and pretty good on the whole.

"But a couple of lapses in concentration meant that Notts County got the chance to score a couple of goals and we scored a decent goal ourselves.

"But performance wise, with a young side, we thought it was pretty decent."

The Hornets fielded several young players, handing defender Adam Thompson his first-team debut and the former Youth Team Coach highlighted the importance of such experience for the younger members of the squad.

"We have to give our young players the experience of the reality of what it is because some of them players are the next in line to play.

"There's always a bigger picture to it and as much as we are disappointed, as are the fans, at not getting through you have to look at the positives.

"The fact that Adam Thompson made his debut; other younger players got another game under their belt and part of that experience only comes from games like Tuesday night.

Youngster Adam Thompson made his first team debut on Tuesday night

"Then it's all about re-educating on what happened in the game, debriefing it, making sure they're aware of how they can learn for the future and how they can challenge themselves in the future to not let games get away from them.

"It takes time" continued the former defender. "You can't cheat your way to experience.

"All you can do is put them in a position of experience, talk about it, guide them through what happened, explore it with them as a group and find out their thoughts and give them some guidance.

"The big one from the other night is you've got to score a goal. If we score early it changes the way the whole game played out."

CLICK HERE FOR OUR REGULAR TRUST COURSES