Professional development phase lead coach Frank Sinclair has praised his side’s performance levels despite recent defeats in the EFL Youth Alliance League.
Rovers U18s fell to a 4-2 home defeat against Harrogate Town before most recently losing 1-0 at Hartlepool United in their last two games.
Despite not getting the results the youngsters have perhaps deserved over the last fortnight, the youth team manager paid credit to the player’s efforts.
Sinclair said: “Obviously we’ve lost both games and we’re disappointed with the results but not the performances.
“When I look at the Harrogate game, I thought we battled really well until the end against a very strong outfit and I thought it was a very close game considering what we’re currently missing.
“We competed really well that day and we came away disappointed to get beat.
“On Saturday against Hartlepool I thought we dominated on the ball when you look at how we played in our own half, in the build-up and with our creativity. The only disappointing aspect was that we didn’t take our chances."
The youth team manager also gave credit to Hartlepool's goalkeeper who put on an inspired performance to keep Rovers at bay.
He added: “Their goalkeeper put in a really inspired performance and I think we could still be playing now and not beaten him because of how good he was.
“We had chances though that I expect us to score and we didn’t take them and got punished.
“Our lads deserve some credit though because we’re not at full strength at the minute and they’re really stepping up to put a shift in."