Manchester City U18 coach Ben Wilkinson was happy with his players in defeat to Manchester United on the weekend.
City lost 1-0, with Louie Jackson scoring United's winner. United sit well clear at the top of the table.
Wilkinson told City's website: I really enjoyed the game from a youth coach point of view.
It was a proper game, two good teams and a game that was decided on real fine margins. In terms of our performance I think we can reflect and be relatively pleased.
I thought we had really good control in the first half, we had good intent about us with and without the ball and I thought we tried to do the right things we just couldn't create quite enough.
And then the second half of the game was decided on real fine margins. I thought each side had two or three good moments, they took their and we didn't take ours. It's a hard defeat to take but in terms of a performance point of view and attitude I think the players can hold their heads high.
We knew it was going to be a tough game but like I said the performance was pretty good, the attributes of the players was good it just probably feels worse than it normally would because we chasing a team this season rather than the other way round. So overall it's a hard one to take but plenty of positives as well."