Harry Kewell admits he has problems to solve after his Watford Under-21 side suffered a 3-1 defeat against Hull City in Professional Development League 2 South last night.

The loss was the Hornets’ first of their fledging league campaign. Goals from Will Annan, Johan Ter Horst and Taylor Tombides cancelled out Bernard Mensah’s first-half strike and were enough to secure victory for the Tigers over a Golden Boys side which included Essaid Belkalem and Tommie Hoban. 

Former Liverpool and Leeds United winger Kewell - who took charge of Watford’s newly formed Under-21 side this summer - was disappointed his players were unable to capitalise on their positive start to the game.

“Personally it was disappointing, we just looked a little lacklustre, we didn’t have energy,” Kewell told the club website.

“I thought we started brightly. We created chances, a few great balls were whipped in and we scored the goal.

"But to their credit Hull worked hard, they were pressing from all angles, not giving us any space, and then when we did lose the ball we sat off them a bit.

“I know in the first-half we wanted to do that. But then they started playing long-balls and they caught us out, which you must give to them because they did well.”

The former Australian international continued: “These guys (Watford’s players) haven’t played a lot together. You see with Hull, they play as a team. You can tell that they have been together for a while whereas with us it is all new and exciting, especially for me.

“If we were winning 4 or 5-0, I’d be thinking great, what do I do now, but there are problems for us, and I want to solve them.”

Meanwhile, there was disappointment for Watford’s Under-18s on Saturday as they were beaten 2-0 by Leeds United. 

Watford Under-21 side v Hull City: Gilmartin; Young (Trialist, 70), Hoban, Belkalem, Greenidge (Doherty, 45); Lewis, Johnson, Smith, Martin; Mensah, Jakubiak

Unused substitutes: Gartside; Mason, Stevens