Ben Foster has told his young Watford teammates to "grow up fast" ahead of a difficult game at Barnsley this weekend.

The Hornets have conceded after going ahead in their last two matches, against Bournemouth and Wycombe Wanderers, and been forced to settle for a point.

The veteran goalkeeper said there is a lot of promise in the club's young starlets, but they need to adapt to the rigours of the Championship sooner or later.

“I think you can expect a bit more [than the Wycombe performance],” he told the club website. “We’re still a very young team and it’s a bit of a baptism of fire into this league when you come up against teams like this, but we need to grow up fast.

“It’s a very, very tough league, you can’t take anything for granted. We were third going into this game and they were near the bottom of the league without a point, but we’re the ones happier with a point than them.”

Foster said that it was the Chairboys' physicality that Watford failed to deal with, something they can expect more of this weekend in South Yorkshire.

Watford Observer:

Despite expecting the strong challenge, the Hornets failed to deal with it effectively and they will need to improve ahead of Saturday.

“It was a very difficult night,” said Foster about Wycombe. “We knew they were very physical and that was going to be their style of play. We were well versed in what they were going to do, we’ve seen plenty of videos, but we just didn’t cope with it.

“We knew what to expect. That’s how they’re going to get out of the relegation zone, they’ve got to rely on players working hard for them and direct football, and tonight it showed. They’re going to be a serious handful for a lot of teams.

Watford Observer:

“The big man up front [Adebayo Akinfenwa] was absolutely brilliant for them, he’s so efficient in what he does and we struggled to cope.”