Notts County youth team were defeated 2-0 by Burton Albion youth team on the opening day of the North East Youth Alliance league campaign.
The Magpies created a host of chances but failed to make the most of their dominance.
Head of academy coaching Andy McMillan was upbeat after the final whistle and takes plenty of positives into the next week of training.
He told the official site: The attitude from the start was top drawer, they’ve worked hard in the warm-up and started the game brightly.
“In fairness the best team got beat really and I can’t fault the lads’ effort.
“t was one of those games where we’ve done everything I’ve asked them to do.
“We’ve had numerous chances to score and there’s plenty of positives, including the performance in general.
“They’ve been a bit up and down during pre-season and I said ahead of the game that the workrate hasn’t been there, but the team was good on Saturday.
“We really tried to play but at the end of the day it’s 2-0 to them and that’s the disappointing thing.”
You can view the youth team’s schedule for 2013.14 by clicking here.
Photographs by Andy Stokes