Oldham Athletic youth team, sponsored by the Safeguard Group, fell to a 2-0 defeat at the weekend against Burnley.
A team, mainly consisting of under 17 players, took to the field and put in a solid display but unfortunately fell to defeat.A goal in either half for the visitors was enough to seal them victory over the young Latics but academy phase coach Pete Wild felt his young squad coped well with the game.
He said: "We integrated some of the under 16 players that we have signed for next season so it was good experience for them.
"We started off well in the game and we tried a new system which we are looking to play for next season which we thought worked well.
"We were undone by an individual error and went into the break behind but we were happy with the performance apart from the goal.
"Burnley tweaked their system in the second half and with only a couple of minutes to go managed to get another goal courtesy of another individual error.
"Overall we showed promise and we were quite happy with the performance."
With Tony Philliskirk away with the first team, Wild and Simon Cooper have taken the reigns in his absence and it is something they are thriving on.
Wild added: "It's great experience for me and Simon. We are really enjoying getting our points across and building on what Tony has already done this season."