Rovers lead youth Development Phase coach Frank Sinclair has taken the positives out of his side’s recent game despite falling to a 2-0 loss at Mansfield Town.
The visitors were looking for a third consecutive league win having previously beat Grimsby Town and Lincoln City but a goal from Ronnie Kokkinos and a spectacular effort from McKeal Abdullah stopped the youth team in their tracks.
Despite the defeat on the road, Sinclair was keen to point out the pleasing aspects of his side’s performance in a very competitive game in Nottinghamshire.
He said: “The Mansfield game was a good game between two teams who played good football and it was competitive.
“I was really pleased with the performance in the first-half, I thought the shape of the team out of possession was almost perfect after what we’ve been working on.
“We built up from the back and created some good opportunities and final third entries in the first-half.”
Despite missing out on taking the points back to South Yorkshire, Rovers remain only three points behind the league leaders and Sinclair admitted his side would be doing the necessary work in training to make sure they retained the pressure at the top of the EFL Youth Alliance League.
He added: “I can’t complain at the way that the lads have worked this week and the preparations we made for this game, so I just want us to respond now like we did a couple of weeks ago after our rough patch.
“From week-to-week we’re getting better and there’s moments in the game where we had good opportunities but today our final pass just let us down.
“I can’t fault their effort or application so we’ll get back to work in the week and go again.
“I expect us to respond and return to winning ways against Scunthorpe United.”