Ashley Fletcher claims he had been pestering head coach Xisco Munoz about his game time ahead of his winning goal against Crystal Palace.

The striker made his first competitive start for the Hornets in last night's 1-0 Carabao Cup win, scoring his first goal for the club.

While the former Middlesbrough man knows that he has a lot of quality to compete against for places up front, he believes he is good enough to rival his teammates.

“The forward talent that we’ve got here is extremely high and for me to get an opportunity is great," he told the club website.

"I’ve been kind of getting onto the manager wanting a chance, saying I did well in pre-season and scored a few goals, and for me to get an opportunity to play with these boys is brilliant. Hopefully, I can keep exciting the fans.”

The decisive moment in the match arrived when Fletcher got on the end of Cucho Hernandez's cross, as a penalty shootout seemed almost inevitable.

The forward said the movement for the goal was something he and the Colombian had discussed prior to the match.

“It’s always nice to score on your debut and for me, it has been really important to get off the mark,” he said.

“We discussed it [the movement for the goal] and obviously I was playing on the right-wing, which I’m not quite used to.

“I enjoyed it and the opportunity to play tonight is important. I’ve got to play where they want to play me. With Cucho’s quality, I looked up and knew he was going to put it into that area, so it was just about staying onside, timing the header, run and then luckily, I got a touch to it."