Under-18 Lead Coach Charlie Daniels explained that his Young Hornets will learn a lot from their 4-2 defeat at the hands of Arsenal in the FA Youth Cup fifth round.

Michael Adu-Poku and Tobi Adeyemo gave Watford an early two-goal lead, but Arsenal responded with four second-half goals to secure their place in the competition’s last eight.

Daniels believes that the Under-18s can only improve from the loss and will become better players in the future as a result.

“As you can imagine they are very dejected and they are very down,” Daniels began. “They gave me all their effort, and they always do.

“It’s a learning curve for a lot of them, especially having to deal with the pressure that’s ultimately going to come in the future. After Arsenal scored the first goal I don’t think we dealt with the setback as well as we could have.

“We went for a game plan of how we can affect the game and how we can disrupt their backline. I thought we did it extremely well, scoring two goals in quick succession quite early on. It was a dream start and I think the lads were really buoyed by it.

“Unfortunately, they scored the first goal and then it went two goals, three goals and four. It went a bit too quickly in succession. They’re young players, so they will have to learn from this when they get older.

“It’s a learning curve for a lot of them and they can get over it. And next time it happens, it won’t have the same impact.”

Reflecting on the FA Youth Cup journey as a whole, despite exiting the tournament in the fifth round Daniels believes that his side should be proud of themselves.

“There’s so much to take from the tournament,” he said. “There’s so much to take from every single game because every single game was different. Against Lincoln City, we dominated the game and we went three goals up.

“Then coming to Everton at home, a category one opposition, was a big test and we stood up against the challenge well. We really affected the game. We got three great goals, and then coming into today we scored two great goals and then we were probably up against it the rest of the game.

“I’m really proud of them. To a man, they’ve given me everything. They’ve really progressed not only as individuals but as a team as well. They showed togetherness, they showed spirit, they showed fire and they showed quality as well. I’m really proud of them and they should be really proud of themselves.

“And not only have they done the club really proud, they’ve done their families really proud as well. Obviously tonight will hurt, not just tonight, but probably for a few days, but after that, looking back on their performances, they should be really proud of what they’ve done.”

With over 2,400 in attendance at Vicarage Road, Daniels thanked the supporters for coming out to back the Young Hornets.

He added: “It was a really special occasion to have nearly two-and-a-half-thousand people here tonight. I know the players are really happy and glad that the supporters came out and supported them tonight.

“You could really feel the energy, especially when we scored two early goals, they’re celebrating like mad. They’re really taking in what it means to be a footballer. The players are really appreciative of all the fans coming out and hopefully the fans will appreciate the quality of their play, the spirit and the fight that they showed.”