RAY LEWINGTON was pleased with his extremely young charges as they went down 2-1 to a more experienced Tottenham Hotspur on Monday night.

"Without wishing to sound or be a good loser, we did have a very, very young side, and it was a case of getting kids out of college on Monday afternoon," said the reserve team boss.

"Spurs had a few with experience such as Leonhardsen Thatcher and Davies. So, in the first half we did really well in terms of defending, which we weren't doing in the first couple of games this season. Overall, we competed well."

After keeping Spurs at bay on the Stevenage Borough pitch until half time, they then conceded what was a fortunate goal for the home side.

Watford compounded this when Jerel Ifil, who Lewington points out still has much to learn, but also has "bags of potential", made a mistake which enabled Spurs to go into a 2-0 lead.

Watford pushed forward, and Anthony McNamee worked an opening and scored; Sam Swonnell had hit the post, and McNamee was in an excellent position to equalise but the pass was not forthcoming.

November 6, 2001 10:30