Watford midfielder Kaylen Hinds spoke of his pride at marking his senior debut in last night's FA Cup match with Tranmere Rovers with a goal, even though he ended up on the losing side.

The 21-year-old was introduced at half-time in the third round replay with the Hornets trailing and bagged an equaliser that forced the game to go beyond 90 minutes. 

However, an extra-time strike from Paul Mullin meant that he would not be rewarded with a game against Manchester United, the club he supported as a boy, in the next round of the competition.

"I'm over the moon, it's a proud moment for me," he said.

"I'm not too happy about the result, but it's a learning curve for us. There was a lot of young players playing today and I think we'll go back, reflect on it and learn from it.

"They're [Man United] the team I supported when I was younger, so I'm disappointed, but it's an experience for me and all the other younger boys who played out there today."

Hinds' first-team opportunity came about due to a busy schedule of fixtures and the club's priority lying firmly with their Premier League relegation battle.

Now he has had a taste of senior action, the youngster wants to try and force himself into contention as much as he can so he can keep learning and developing.

The game against Tranmere provided him with unique experiences of playing against a physical side and on a pitch coated with mud and sand, but he thinks that was still no excuse for losing the game. 

"You've just got to deal with it," he said. "It's in front of us, it's a pitch, two teams are playing on it. We can't make any excuses at the end of the day.

"I want to start pushing more into the first team and just try to stay around. 

"It was very good experience. I've had a bit of experience before, so it was not that new to me but it was still a very good experience as in playing against guys who've played in a lot of the leagues and are very experienced at what they do."