Sam Tillen was delighted with the maturity shown by his young squad as they picked up their second consecutive point in a 1-1 draw with Notts County.
14-year-old Mason Jubb opened the scoring for the young Imps with a very well-placed finish into the top corner before City were ultimately pegged back after being caught on the counter by the visitors.
Tillen looked ahead to next season with his young group of players and is pleased with the level of progress they’ve made over recent weeks.
He said: “We’re trying to get ahead of the curve a little bit in terms of what we’re doing now, post-Christmas we’ve tried to put out a team that we’re looking at for next year.
“As a result, we’ve been playing very young sides a lot of U15s and U16s and with those we’re looking to try and galvanise the group and look at players we can hopefully recruit for next year.”
A short turnaround awaits City as they make the journey to Stockport on Tuesday in a rearranged fixture and the boss recognises the difficulty of the fixture ahead of them.
Tillen said: “Stockport will be a good side and it’s a long trip midweek given some of the injury troubles we’re having.
“Hopefully we can carry on the momentum of the two draws we’ve had but we just have to build on the foundations and hope we can get a positive result.”
Jubb was pleased to get on the scoresheet and play his part in a hard fought draw at the Gen2 Energy Elite Performance Centre.
He said: “I’m very happy to get the goal so hopefully I can keep scoring and keep playing well.
“The ball fell perfectly for me, I controlled it and the defender fell over so I decided to just hit it as hard as I could into the top corner.”
The young midfielder has broken through into the U18s in recent weeks and got 90 minutes under his belt against Notts County - Jubb says he's pleased with his development.
He added: “I've been getting more minutes and game time lately so hopefully I can keep progressing as I'm really enjoying my football - hopefully it will prepare me well for next year.”
Jubb gave his thoughts on the trip to Stockport on Tuesday, he's optimistic the side can build on the two recent positive performances.
He said: “I’m very hopeful we can keep this form going. We’re playing very good football so as long as we keep on doing what we know we can then the results should go our way.”
City U18: Taylor, Eyres, Wilson, K. Oliver, Don-Duncan, Sagoo (Preston 46'), Kennealey, Trialist A, Trialist B (Vanderpuye 46'), Jubb, Trialist C. Subs (unused): Shaw, Trialist D.
Goals: Jubb