Sam Tillen felt his young team acquitted themselves well after bowing out of the FA Youth Cup against Peterborough United on Sunday.
City went in 2-0 down at the break against their category two opponents, with Posh scoring early in the second half to take the game away from the Imps.
Tillen believed his side were still in the game at the interval and praised them for their fight against higher opposition.
He said: “I thought the first half we acquitted ourselves fairly well, they capitalised on two mistakes of ours but Jaden Taylor made a couple of saves and I felt we were still very much in the game.
“Our team talk at half time was that if we kept going and showed a bit more composure and quality on the ball and we tightened up on a few things tactically we could get back into the game.”
A younger side took to the field against Posh due to injuries in defence and top scorer Josh Kennealey, and Tillen was full of praise for his young group, in particular, full-back Regan Chipperfield.
He said: “I thought Regan Chipperfield was outstanding at right back, he did really well and showed he’s more than capable of handling U18s football at this level.
“Noah Hutton also worked very hard in midfield, which is commendable as an U16, and we also had Timi Bada who is a shadow scholar and he looked a real threat getting down the wing at times.”
The Imps have another tough assignment on Saturday 1 November when they travel to face Preston North End and Tillen believes his side will be relishing the challenge of bouncing back.
Tillen added: “They’re another good side that we’ll have to face, they’re always one of the best academies at are level so we know it’s going to be a difficult game, the lads will take a day off and then preparations will begin, looking for a bounce back.”
Defender Noah Simmons echoed the head coach's thoughts and is looking forward to City's next Youth Alliance fixture against Preston.
He said: “The team kept going to the very end. It’s hard to show character in times like these, but the lads still showed that.
“Hopefully Preston will be a good game to help us turn it around and we can get a better feeling for the whole team.”