YOUTH team coach Danny Heath praised the application and attitude of his squad despite Southend United's under 18 side suffering their first defeat of the season at Peterborough United on Tuesday afternoon.

Shaun Keane scored the only goal of the game for Posh around 10 minutes from the end as Blues bowed out of the EFL Youth Alliance Cup at the first round stage at the Mick George Training Ground in Orton Longueville.

But Heath believes his team will learn a number of lessons from the encounter.

“The squad will have learnt a lot about how to win a game, but also how not to lose a game,” said Heath.

“The aim for the boys is to reach the first team, and at that level the result is what it’s all about because it’s their jobs and their livelihoods.”

“So, although the performance was really good, it was disappointing not to get the win to go with it. That is the ideal outcome. On Saturday, against the same opposition, we didn’t play as well as we did in this game and we got a draw.”

 

“The boys will be learning. They know they’ve got to start making performances count in the cup competitions because they’ve shown now they can do it in the league.

"They’ll have another opportunity at Ipswich Town in the FA Youth Cup, but for now our focus is on Northampton Town.”

Blues face the Cobblers away on Saturday as part of a sequence of five matches in 14 days that represents a similar scenario to what the squad would encounter in the first-team environment.

And Heath concluded that the experience will provide additional education for the team.

“The learning curve for the boys is to marry the performance with the result and managing themselves as we play Saturday-Tuesday-Saturday," said Heath.

"The performance was very pleasing, but if you are pushing on into the first team you have to make it count with the win.

"That’s what we’ll be trying to do on Saturday.”

Southend United U18s: Grossart, Davis, Arrowsmith,  Burkey (Crowhurst 60), Shala (Reeve 60), Wallace, Anyadike, Brown, Adedoja, O Coker, Unwin.