Watford U23s were comfortably beaten 3-0 by Leeds United on a frustrating afternoon at Vicarage Road on Monday afternoon.

Chelsea loanee Izzy Brown was a cut above the rest of the players on show and he scored a goal that separated the two sides after an otherwise evenly contested first half.

The second half saw United capitalise on some poor defending from a Mateusz Bogusz free kick to add a second through Pascal Struijk before Kun Mihaylov added a third soon after.

Brown had the Watford defence running scared throughout the game and he fired a warning shot at the Hornets’ goal after just five minutes of play, but he failed to bend his effort into the far corner of the net.

Some slicker passing could have given Watford the lead just before the quarter of an hour mark, when they created their first real sight of goal.

Imaad Sankoh was played through the middle on a counter attack and he charged through two-on-one with a Leeds defender alongside Jayden Bennetts.

However, Sankoh’s square pass lacked accuracy and Leeds were able to recover and clear the danger before the Hornets could find space for a shot.

Watford almost took the lead again seven minutes later through one of four trialists appearing in the yellow and black shirts.

This one wearing the number five and playing in a centre back role, got up from the back for a corner, but headed wide with the goal at his mercy.

The Hornets found themselves behind shortly after as Brown glided through the defence with ease, brushing past a trialist in the number seven shirt and Sankoh, before calmly slotting the ball past Adam Parkes.

Watford fought back and Harry Hudson had a great chance to equalise soon after, when he leapt at the back post completely unmarked to meet Bennetts’ corner, but he mistimed his jump and headed off target, leaving the Hornets a goal down at the break.

The second half started at a much slower pace than the first and took until the 60 minute mark for the first chance to fall.

Once again, the trialist wearing the number five shirt had a wonderful opportunity to find the net with a header from a cross into the box, this time following a free kick, but again he failed to find the target.

Just two minutes later the same move was repeated, but Joy Mukena this time was guilty of mistiming his jump and not making Harrison Male work in the Leeds goal.

The visitors then took the game by the scruff of the neck and put it beyond Watford’s reach with some good attacking football.

First Jordan Stevens threaded a ball into the path of Robbie Gotts, who pulled back to Bogusz inside the area, but he crashed the ball against the upright.

The second came only a minute later though when Struijk latched onto Bogusz’s free kick after it had evaded all in the box, including Parkes in the Watford goal, and the defender was on hand to nod into an empty net.

With 15 minutes left to go, Kun Mihaylov replaced Ryan Edmondson and just four minutes later he had the game wrapped up.

Brown slipped a perfect ball into the path of Stevens who squared for Mihaylov in the six yard box and he simply could not miss from close range.

Brown had another chance to add some extra gloss onto the scoreline after he latched onto a through ball by Bogusz and tried a clever lob from range with Parkes far off his line.

The shot dropped just wide of the mark and the referee blew the final whistle soon after to signal the end of a miserable match for Watford.