Professional development phase coach Frank Sinclair is looking to build on the positives shown in his side’s recent defeat, despite a disappointing day at the Hoober Homes Elite Performance Centre.
The game against north west champions Blackpool was Rovers’ first in this year’s EFL Youth Alliance League Cup with three more to follow in the group stage.
Despite the 4-0 loss, the youth team manager was keen to look at both what went wrong and the positives of the occasion for his squad.
Sinclair said: “It was obviously a very disappointing day to get beat by four at home, however, in the first half we did compete quite well and had the chance to take the lead - but we’ve gifted them a goal with a misplaced pass just before the break.
“I thought in the opening half, and on another day we could’ve been looking at a different game but in the second half we were just overrun.
“One of the positives is that we managed to give out five U18s debuts against Blackpool so on the development side of things, that was really strong.
“Of the five, three of them were U16s so it was great for them to get a taste of what U18s football is all about.”
Currently sitting in fifth place in group three after the opening round of fixtures, Sinclair was aware of the amount of cup football still to come.
He added: “There’s absolutely still the chance to get through in this competition.
“We’ll be in a stronger position when the other games come around in terms of depth so hopefully we can still give it a good go.
“It’s one game and one loss though so the next game is going to be absolutely vital in terms of us wanting to get through.
“We’ll be ready for when that comes around and we’ll give it our all to go as far as we can in this competition.”