Lee Bell felt that the Papa John’s Trophy clash with Wrexham was a worthwhile learning curve for some of his young players - despite the 3-0 defeat.

The Railwaymen cannot progress from Group B after the reverse at Mornflake Stadium, inflicted by Jordan Tunnicliffe, Jordan Davies and Luke Young.

But seven homegrown players started the game, including the likes of teenagers Calum Agius, Owen Lunt and Lewis Billington.

And scholars Lewis Nolan and Nathan Robinson played their part off the bench – with the latter making his debut for the club.

Manager Bell said: “We don’t want to be in the business of losing football matches, that’s for sure.

“But you can see with our team selection what we were trying to do and what we were looking for.

“Seeing some of the younger players do well against a good team was very positive.

“It doesn’t matter how many changes (Wrexham) make; they still have that experience to come in and are a strong outfit.

“As a group, we didn’t get the result we were aiming for. But I was really delighted by some of the younger players’ performances and Nathan came on for his debut and he looked comfortable for the minutes he was on.

“He has worked his way through in the Under-21s and deserved his opportunity.”

Another plus was Charlie Colkett, who completed 90 minutes for the first time since suffering a hamstring injury in pre-season.

Bell added: “That will be good for Charlie. The temptation was there to take him off but we wanted to make sure he got through the 90 minutes.

“I thought the older players and the players around the first team carried themselves well.”