Coventry City manager Tony Mowbray praised his side despite their 3-0 loss at Norwich City.
Speaking to the Coventry Telegraph's Andy Turner, Mowbray said: “There was lots of pleasing stuff out there tonight.
“I thought that we more than matched them in the first half – they struggled to get hold of the ball but we obviously lacked penetration in the final third and didn’t really threaten their goal.
“That shouldn’t be a surprise to anybody because we’re a long way from our first team; I said to Jamie Clapham that you could maybe pick four players out there – a maximum of five – who have to be in the team and the others are youngsters who will hopefully be improving in the Under-21s this season.
“They’re just starting to make their way in the game but I thought they did themselves proud and put on a great performance for the club and the people who travelled to watch them.
“They showed the bravery you need to play your football but we lost our shape in the second half when they made all their changes and we were starting to tire. We got pushed back a bit, allowed ourselves to get isolated at times, but then you’d expect that because they’re a very good side, remember.
“A lot of them were playing in the Premier League last season, making life hard for some of the best sides in the world, while a lot of ours were playing in the Youth Cup.
"There were lots of good performance – I thought Gadzhev shone on the pitch, not just for us but for both teams.
“Their first goal was a bit of pure clas from Wes Hoolahan who is a top, top player – they didn’t cut us open it was just a great strike from 20-odd yards.
"Their other goals came within 20 seconds of a rash of substitutions when we were still finding our feet. But let’s not look at the result – let’s look at a decent performance which gives us something to work on moving forward.”
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