Watford manager Malky Mackay said his players have to learn from their mistakes after being demolished 5-0 by Chelsea in the FA Cup on Sunday night.

The Hornets found themselves three goals behind early in the contest and Mackay said it was simply not good enough to give up goals at such early stages of games.

"To lose a goal in the first five minutes, from a scrappy corner, doesn't help," said Mackay.

"It gives you an uphill battle. You want to keep it as tight as possible, so that didn't help. It's hard. We've got to learn from that. We go back and watch the DVD and we'll look at it and be honest with ourselves.

"There were bits of the game where we could have done better. They're world-class players - they're two levels above us, they're top European players - but there were situations where we could have done better. That's where we have to improve. If we learn from it, it'll benefit us in the long-run.

"If we'd started the game the way we started the second half, it might have been a different game. We gave it a real go for 15 or 20 minutes of the second half. That's how we needed to start. If you don't do that, you'll get punished. For those 15 minutes we kept the ball and passed it well.

"It's about learning. There's the standard if you want to be a top England international. That's what you're up against. That was European standard football out there, and that's what we aspire to and what the lads must keep working towards."