Sam Tillen was pleased with his side's first-half performance against AFC Wimbledon in the U17 PDL Shield.
The young Imps exited the competition on Tuesday at the quarter final stage, but Tillen believes there are positives to take from the game.
He said: "We played very well in the first half and deserved to be more than 1-0 up at the break. We pressed well and if we were more efficient in our transitions we could have affected the score line even more.
"After half time we gave a cheap penalty away and that gave Wimbledon momentum which we didn’t manage to arrest back in our favour. The deflected second goal came after we regained the ball again after an effective press and as we sought the equaliser we became a little too open and were punished for it."
Tillen thinks his side's run in the competition will help the development of the players as they look to finish their Youth Alliance North campaign strong.
He said: "It was a good developmental tool for us, to take our chances and take better advantage of our ascendancy in matches and also look at how we can be more effective at turning the game back in our favour."