Watford striker Jerome Sinclair is hoping his first goal for the club can prove a catalyst for his season at Vicarage Road.

The 20-year-old bagged his debut strike in a Hornets' shirt in yesterday's 2-0 win over Burton Albion, firing home after a fine solo run from the edge of his own half.

Sinclair did not make his debut until a last-minute appearance at West Brom in November, but has since made two starts for Walter Mazzarri's side, as well as three more cameos from the bench.

He had been heavily linked with a loan move away from the club in January, but is hoping to force his way into his head coach's plans in Hertfordshire instead.

He said: "Obviously it’s all up to the manager but I’d like to think I’ve given him something to think about, and if he puts me in that I can do a job.

"To score a goal like that on my home debut was a big moment for me. When it hit the back of the net, a bit of passion, a bit of relief, a bit of everything came out.

"All you can try to do is give the manager something to think about and whether he can afford to put me in in the forthcoming games."

Sinclair insisted he had not been frustrated with a lack of first-team action for most of the season so far after his summer move from Liverpool, where he did not make a single Premier League appearance last season.

"I always knew coming here would be a work in progress," he said. "It wouldn’t be a matter of coming here and demanding game time.

"I know as a young player I’ve got things I need to work on, and I’m trying to do that. As long as things like this keep coming, I’m going to try to do that.

"When I came in, I needed to put a bit of weight on physically and I’ve done a lot of work in the gym.

Watford is a big project. You can see there’s a lot of things going on and it was an exciting thing for me to get involved in."

With the Hornets on a run of seven defeats from 10 coming into yesterday's game, the goalscorer also revealed he and his team-mates had been determined to turn around their form in the dressing room, in what could have easily turned into a cup upset at Vicarage Road.

He said: "When you’re at a club when you’re not performing to your best level and winning games, there’s always a feeling of we need to do better.

"It’s been a matter of us getting together and thinking about how we can make the whole situation better.

"The boys are aware the form hasn’t been good enough, we wanted to go into the game and use it as a springboard to give the fans something to cheer about.

"Now it’s about taking that into the next game against Middlesbrough."