Under-18’s Head Coach Matthew Blinkhorn took positives from the weekend’s 2-1 loss to Rotherham going into the LFA Professional Youth Cup final.
His side went 2-0 down but continued to fight and got a goal back late on, but they couldn’t find an equaliser in a tough game.
“It was a difficult game,” said Blinkhorn.
“It was always going to be with how Rotherham play, they go very direct.
“The pitch was very difficult to play on but there’s different ways of trying to win football games and we have to try and adapt to that.
“We have to try and put our players in these types of environments to deal with that because it might end up looking like that in the first team environment.
“There was some good parts to the game, but generally, the game wasn’t a great game or a great spectacle.”
Blinkhorn also said the tactics Rotherham employed after going ahead didn’t help his side.
“They scored quite early in the game and did a lot of time wasting,” he said.
“From my perspective there I want to see our players get on the ball there trying to play quickly increasing the tempo, increasing the intensity.
“We spoke to the players about that at half-time, did we do it in the second half?
“They scored a goal again which then makes it more difficult, they go into a little bit of a low block and to try and play through a low block on a difficult pitch is even harder.
“It was a tough day, but there’s loads of learning to take away from it.”
Despite the loss, Blinkhorn thinks his side is in a good place going into Wednesday’s final.
“Lads have got more minutes, so I think you look at Gabe Schluter, he’s been out for quite a while, that’s his first 90 minutes with the 18’s since he’s returned,” he said.
“We managed to manage Theo (Upton) a little bit, managed George Elder a little bit, James Butterworth got another 60 minutes.
“So we’re in a good place going into Wednesday’s game in terms of fitness levels of the players.
“It was good to see Max (Wylezol) come on, an Under-16 that recently signed, have an impact on the game and score his first goal.
“I thought Oli Hunter came on and spotted some really nice passes in the midfield as well.
“So yeah, there is positives to take from the game.”