Darren Wassall was pleased with a number of individual performances despite seeing Derby County’s Under-23s fall to a narrow 2-1 defeat against an experienced Nottingham Forest side in the Premier League Cup at Pride Park Stadium.
Charles Vernam’s opener was cancelled out by Zach Clough’s equaliser, and the 22-year-old set up the winner for Matty Cash to earn the three points in Group A.
Wassall doesn’t think that his young side should be disheartened after a promising performance against a number of first team squad members, and he was happy with some positive individual displays, especially from Callum Guy.
He told RamsTV: “You’re always disappointed when you lose a game but there were some good individual performances.
“Callum is getting back to his best after being out for a long time and I thought he was outstanding. He will have done himself no harm. he was as good as anybody on the pitch.
“Joe Bateman also did well along with Jayden Mitchell-Lawson when he came on, he was very sharp for an 18-year-old second year scholar.”
Clough and Cash were two of five first team players to start for Forest on the night, and Wassall was satisfied with how his team stood up to a difficult challenge.
He said: “I don’t think that we were overawed, we competed really well against a really experienced side.
“The performances over the last seven games have been excellent, you can’t win every game but you want to put in a performance that is full of energy and desire.
“It wasn’t quite good enough tonight but there are lots of positives, we want to win every game but you have to look at the bigger picture, and for us it’s about trying to get players their first team opportunity.”