Paul Stancliffe heaped praise on his young players for their strong mentality during their victory over Scunthorpe United.
Rovers U18s secured a comfortable victory against the Iron, despite the majority of the team taking part in the Premier League U21s cup match the day before.
Stancliffe said: “The mentality was something we’ve talked about – the mental toughness they needed today. Sometimes it happens in football – not as much nowadays – but back in my day it was like that where you used to get two or three games in a few days, they proved they could do it and that it wasn’t a problem.
“We had to contest with a bobbly pitch, we had howling wind and the conditions weren’t perfect, but it was the same for both teams. I thought we won the battles more than they did and it was one of those games we had to grind out and I thought we did, and our lads really stuck to the task.
“For the first 20-minutes I thought we were a bit too open, but we had a chat at half-time, the second-half was never going to be a footballing game but we showed we could do the other side of the game as well so I was really pleased with them.”
The result means that Rovers move to the top of their table, but Stancliffe prefers to take it one game at a time.
He added: “It’s good to have a run and the boys are enjoying it – it’s good to be a part of – we’ve just got to make sure that as coaches we analyse everything and them as players are able to analyse their own positions to help them learn.
“If we can come out of the rest of this season with this run-in intact, we’ll just have to see where it takes us. For now, we just need to remain focused on winning games and developing the players.
“It’s always good to get a win but it was pleasing the way we got it – we adapted to conditions today and we stuck at it.”