Watford Under-21 boss Harry Kewell believes his young side dominated their 2-1 defeat to Charlton Athletic yesterday but admits the Hornets lacked the clinical edge they needed to “punish” the Addicks.

The young Golden Boys led at the interval of their Under-21 Professional Development League 2 South fixutre through Alex Jakubiak’s second goal in two games.

The striker fired in via the post after being teed up by Connor Smith, who has recently returned from a loan spell at Stevenage.

Charlton levelled in the second period, however, when Brandon Hanlan turned the ball home after Rene Gilmartin had denied Josh Staunton’s header.

Watford’s goalkeeper then produced a stunning one-handed stop to tip Hanlon’s close-range shot onto the bar and over (below).

But the Irishman could do little about Charlton’s winner as, with 15 minutes remaining, Ademola Lookman thumped a shot from outside of the area into the bottom corner.

Belgium Under-21 international Obbi Oulare had the chance to level late on but he glanced David Sesay’s cross wide.

“Except for the first five minutes, I think we dominated the game,” Kewell told Waford’s website after the defeat.

“We then started to find our rhythm and Alex was picking balls up, Obbi [Oulare] was doing well, Bernard [Mensah] was getting at them, Connor [Smith] had that energy, and we controlled it.

"I know they had their chances, but they were through our mistakes and we actually got the ball and created good chances, so for me, it is just about punishing teams.

“I think we could have punished them today but at the end of the day we lost.”

He added: “There are still a lot of things we need to work on, but again, Charlton have been in this league for three or four years so they have that understanding and players that know the system.

"You’ve got to think, we’ve only been in this league for nine games, so the potential is there to progress a lot. If the players do well here, they can really have a look in on the first-team.”

Watford Under-21s: Gilmartin; Sesay, Johnson, Young, Doherty; Smith (Trialist, 65), Byers (c), Stewart, Mensah (Folivi, 78); Oulare, Jakubiak.

Watford substitutes: Gartside, Hall, Charles.