Academy manager Tony Cook felt the smallest of margins were responsible for Rovers’ 2-1 defeat to Burton Albion at St. George’s Park.
Rovers U18s put in a battling performance and took the lead through Alex Wolny at the home of English football but it wasn’t enough to take home the 3 points as the Brewers came from behind to take the spoils.
Tony Cook’s U18 side were missing captain Dan Wilds, Michael Nesbitt and Will Flint through suspension for the fixture but Cook felt the end-to-end affair was only decided by Rovers’ own faults.
He said: “The goals we conceded were probably just from our own errors, I don’t think we were necessarily out-played, I think it was just individual errors and our errors as a team cost us.
“The first half was a bit of a mixed half, at times we played some really good football, but I think we struggled a little bit to recognise how Burton were playing but once we got a grip of that, we started to play better football and created some opportunities.
“In the second half we started slower but I think we came into the game more as we went forward and when we went down it triggered us to play a little bit harder and sharper.
“I thought in the last 20 minutes we could’ve got back into the game but we just didn’t have that end product to finish the chances we had.”
Rovers had already secured a top five finish in the Youth Alliance League and in turn a place in the top-half merit league but Cook insisted the side will thoroughly go through the defeat and not lose focus heading into the last game of the regular season.
He added: “We’ll reflect on the game, we’ve got to recognise the positives because there were a lot but we’ve got to learn from the areas where we struggled and we’ll definitely be looking at how we conceded the goals because we’ve got to stop them going in.
“We’ll prepare how we always do, every game means the same to us so the Huddersfield game will be a big push even though we’ve essentially got what we wanted by finishing in that top five, but we want a positive end and the lads will be fully focused on trying to get that.”
Rovers will now aim to immediately bounce back from their narrow defeat and end the regular season in a positive manner when they face Huddersfield Town at home on Saturday, 26 March.