Gianfranco Zola stressed his young Watford team need to “grow up quickly” because he believes it would be “a pity not to finalise” what they have achieved so far this season.

The Hornets’ head coach was speaking after his side had conceded an injury-time goal to Burnley which denied them victory and stopped the Golden Boys from climbing into the automatic places.

He said: “I thought we had done enough to win the game. We came back from behind twice to go in front and, without being presumptuous, we totally deserved that.

“Towards the end I didn’t see it coming and that isn’t the first time we have conceded goals towards the end of matches recently when I haven’t seen it coming.

“The opposition wasn’t creating chance after chance and they didn’t create very much [in the second half] and then a sloppy piece of defending or a lack of attention costs us.

“We have a very young team and a lot of players who need to grow up in terms of experience and knowledge of the game.

“There is not much time for them to learn because we need to grow up quickly as we have done very well so far and it would be a pity to not finalise what we have done so far.”

Burnley’s third goal was very disappointing from a defensive point of view, with Matthew Briggs failing to deal with a routine knock-down and striker Sam Vokes was allowed to score to make it 3-3.

Zola said: “He lost his position and was sloppy. He probably didn’t see the man coming and it is a pity because he played a good game.

“It was Briggs [for the third goal] but the first two goals were also somebody else and it is a time where we need to realise that we cannot give anything away.

“Before we were getting away with it because we were scoring a lot of goals but now it is tough because, between now and the end of the season, every game will be very difficult.”

It was end-to-end in the first half as Watford twice came from behind to go into the break level.

The Hornets were more composed in the second period though and looked set to secure victory after Fernando Forestieri’s impressive second goal.

“The performance was very good in the second half,” Zola said.

“In the first half there was a lot of confusion, a lot of challenges, a lot of scrappy balls but the opposition were putting a lot of pressure on the ball and it was difficult.

“In the second half it got better and better and even when we changed the system to 4-3-3, the team responded very well and we deserved to be in front.

“The result has spoiled the rest [of the game] but at least going forward we were much better today because in the last few games we have not been on the same level.”

There will be further reaction from Zola and Burnley’s Sean Dyche in the coming days.

Click here to read today’s match report.