Tony Carr was pleased with the performance of his Under-18s side despite their 2-1 defeat by Arsenal at the weekend.
The Academy director said his side more than matched a strong Arsenal team in the first half, with Anthony Edgar converting a penalty just before the interval, but then could not find a way back after conceding two quick-fire goals midway through the second half. Carr said: "We played very well first half and came in 1-0 up at half-time and on another day we might have had another couple.
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"Although we dominated the first half, it's fair to say they passed it a bit better in the second half. Just before half-time, we had a couple of good chances. Conor [Okus] and Balint [Bajner] both had good chances that might have put us two-up but it wasn't to be."
The missed chances came back to haunt the youngsters from east London as two goals in ten minutes were enough to give the reigning FA Premier Academy League Group A champions victory. "They got their equaliser on about 60 minutes. It was from a corner which is disappointing," Carr said.
"For the second we were hit on the counterattack in the 70th minute. Tony Brookes got injured and he was down on the floor in pain they broke down that side, crossed it and scored. Between 60 and 70 minutes they took control of the game and then saw it out," Carr said.
The manager saw his youngsters battle hard to get back into the game, but after missing a few half-chances knew it was not going to be their day. He said: "In the second half we had a couple of little chances, Balint had a couple of half chances but we couldn't hit the heights we did in the first half so it was a bit disappointing. However, we can take a lot of comfort from the way we played in the first half."