Manager Phillip Cocu believes last night’s Carabao Cup Second Round tie against Nottingham Forest will benefit a number of Derby County's younger players in the long-term.
The Rams' boss handed Louie Sibley and Morgan Whittaker their first senior starts, whilst Lee Buchanan retained his place at left back to make just his third career start.
All three players were part of the Under-18s' Premier League National title success last season, along with Max Bird who featured as a late substitute at the City Ground.
And the manager, who also brought on Jayden Mitchell-Lawson for his first appearance of the season in the second half, believes last night’s game, before a crowd of just under 27,000, will have aided the young players in their development.
The home side ran out 3-0 winners to progress to the Third Round of the competition.
“If you are Morgan, Jayden or Louie, these are the games that will help you the most,” he told RamsTV. “It’s difficult to explain what it’s like to play this game or an Under-23 game.
“It’s a big difference and Louie did well. There are moments in the game where they have to get used to the tempo and the orientation to make the right decision, but they have a good attitude and it was a great effort.
“It was a good experience for them; it doesn’t change the result but these are the parts of the process that we choose as a club.
“It’s important for them to play these games because they always get stuck in Under-23 games, so it’s better for them.”
A number of the youngsters will be hoping to feature on Saturday as the Rams take on Brentford in the Sky Bet Championship at Griffin Park in their final game before the international break.
With six points from their opening five fixtures, Cocu believes it is important to end this sequence of games with a positive result this weekend.
“It’s disappointing that we are now in this position because we deserve more points,” he said. “We have played some good games and we have struggled a little bit to finish a game.
“We go up in the game and we have to kill the game, make the second goal so the game is over.
“It will give confidence to the team and it will be important to do it on Saturday against Brentford so you go into the break with a good result. We will work and focus on Saturday.”
