Watford Under-23 midfielder Dion Pereira is eager to end the season strongly and has already turned his focus to a productive pre-season.

Pereira was on target in a dramatic game as the young Hornets went down to a 4-3 defeat against Huddersfield Town on Monday night.

Hayden Mullins’ side conclude their season with a visit to Colchester on Thursday and, while Pereira’s concentration is on the game, he can’t help but have one eye on preparing for next season.

“We’ve got Colchester on Thursday and it’s the last game of the season so we’ll be looking to travel there and get three points,” Pereira told the club website.

“Then we’ll be thinking about pre-season. I’ll take a week’s holiday and then come back in early so that I can work hard during pre-season and try to get into the first team.”

Last night’s meeting with the Terriers saw Rekeil Pyke score a hat-trick as both sides committed to an attacking manner and Watford come out on the losing side.

Ashley Charles and Ryan Cassidy added to Pereira’s effort in a game which also saw Pyke denied from the penalty spot by Sam Howes.

The Hornets led before Pyke took centre-stage to put Town 3-1 up and, despite Watford battling on, they couldn’t take anything from the game.

Pereira reflected on an eventful game, but was pleased with the manner in which the Hornets continued to push for a route back in to the game despite Huddersfield’s overall control.

“It was a crazy game,” he said. “We gave them a few chances that we shouldn’t have given them, but on the attacking side in the second half it was good that we managed to keep bouncing back almost every time.

“We were on top of them in the second half. We were pressing high and winning the ball back closer to their goal.

“We didn’t finish some of our chances, but if we make sure we do that we will win a lot more games.

“We scored three goals but unfortunately we didn’t get the fourth so we missed out on the points, but we did well to fight back.”

Pereira’s goal came with seven minutes remaining at Vicarage Road and gave Watford brief hope of a late comeback.

It was one of a number of bright moments in a personal highlight reel, which also included an assist for Pereira, and he was pleased with his strike.

He said: “It went through the keepers’ leg so it was a good finish and I’m proud of that.”