BURTON Albion Professional Development Phase Lead Coach Sam Rose was disappointed to see the Young Brewers exit the FA Youth Cup but believes the team will have learned a great deal from their 3-0 defeat to Sheffield Wednesday.
Albion battled hard in front of almost 400 spectators at the Pirelli Stadium on Friday evening but were denied a place in the second round of the competition by an impressive young Owls side.
Speaking shortly after the match, Rose said: “The Youth Cup is great to play in. Getting to the fifth round last season was fantastic and we obviously would’ve loved to reach that stage again this year.
“The experiences the lads get as youth team players in competitions such as this are really important, and what they’ll learn is that the game is so often about fine margins.
“We went into half-time 2-0 down on the night but could quite easily have been level, or even ahead. I thought we regrouped well after going behind and perhaps had the better of it in the first half.
“We saw a group of players that tried really hard throughout to make something happen and the fine margins in the game meant that we lost. If you played that game again, I think that you could see a very different outcome.”
Rose is hopeful that the Young Brewers will be able to take the positives from Friday’s loss as they look to continue their strong recent form in the EFL Youth Alliance, with a home fixture against Grimsby Town on the horizon.
“Ultimately, knockout competitions are ruthless, and the lads are obviously really disappointed that we weren’t able to go through, but we’ll learn from it and will look forward now,” he added.
“We’re relatively happy with how the lads have done so far this season, even though tonight’s defeat is not what we wanted.
“We’re into the quarter-finals of the EFL Youth Alliance Cup and have got a bit of ground to make up in the league but we play the leaders [Grimsby] next week, so that’s a good opportunity for the lads to show their ability to bounce back.
“We’ve asked the boys to use this as an opportunity to regroup. They’ve set a bar in terms of how they’ve applied themselves in this game, and we want to see that continue both on the pitch and off the pitch.
“If they go on to play football at a strong level, they’ll lose plenty more football matches, and it’s experiences like this that give you a kick in the teeth and that you can grow from. That’s ultimately what we hope the boys can do.”