Town U21s boss John McGreal said his squad was buzzing in the dressing room having given their all against a strong Bundesliga Borussia Mönchengladbach side, taking the lead before eventually losing 3-1.
The Blues, who were due to field a first-team squad but were forced into a late switch to the U21s because of fitness issues, had only two senior appearances for the club in their starting line-up - both keeper Cieran Slicker - while the German XI had 892 for their side.
"It’s an experience that some of the boys will cherish for a long, long time,” McGreal said. "They’re 18 years of age a lot of them. We’re trying to create careers for these boys and to get the opportunity to play against a top, top Bundesliga, Premier League as such, team is an unbelievable achievement for the boys to grace the pitch with them.
"They were fantastic as well, they didn’t come off it and I thought we gave them a really, really good test.
"Three set plays against. Our boys were well up for the game, we’ve trained really hard this week and you could see that in the play today.
"Our gaffer [Kieran McKenna] uses our boys quite a lot, so we’re not unknown to playing against a first XI as such because our boys go across quite a bit with the first team and as you could see there, we’re trying to identify ourselves very similar to how the first team play.
"Credit to the boys, you’re going into that day thinking, ‘What could happen today?’ but you’ve got to give all the credit to the lads, I thought they were excellent, every single one of them.”
Was the game a daunting prospect for them? "It’s more like innocence really, a little bit that your eyes are wide shut, in a way; what you don’t know, you’re going in and you’re trying to give them an idea.
"They all know who Borussia Mönchengladbach are, they were a massive force in the 70s and 80s. I remember, going back to ’77, with Liverpool and Liverpool won the [European Cup] final.
"They’re steeped in history but we’ve said it, the boys, you can’t buy that experience. I’m absolutely delighted and really proud of the boys. They’ve made every minute of that game count, and even the subs coming on.
"I think that’s where we are as a football club, opportunity knocks, you can either pass it on to someone else or you take it and run with it yourself. A lot of those boys have done that today, I thought they were excellent.”
Leon Ayinde’s third-minute goal came from a mistake from the Borussia keeper Jonas Omlin but with the winger from Cork making the most of the opportunity.
"Being brave really,” the former Blues centre-half, who was a member of the team which got promoted at Wembley in 2000, reflected.
"We had a little look at them last night, how they want to high press and we knew there might be opportunities on the top line and just had a little bit of luck on our side. But Leon’s had to do awfully well, terrifically well to slot it in, and it’s a great start.
"Then we gave a free-kick away, I think Slicks is really complaining about the referee not blowing a whistle, not being ready from a wide free-kick.
"Then we should have had a penalty [when Matty Roberts claimed to be fouled], we didn’t. They had a penalty, both contentious penalties and then it just evened itself out a little bit in the first half.
"Then in the second half, they’ve had the majority of the play, got a third goal from a set play but then I thought, again character from the boys, I thought then we stood onto them again in the last 15 or 20 minutes.
"The subs helped coming on, giving them fresh impetus fresh legs and again we went and high-pressed, we didn’t try to come off it, we could have easily have sit in a low block, but our first team don’t do that, so why would we gear our lads up to do that? We want to be on the front foot to mirror what the first team do.”
McGreal says Ayinde, midfielder Ryan Carr, keeper Slicker and Osman Foyo, who started as the number nine, benefited from being with the first team this week.
"I think the guys that have come across, Leon, Carrsy, Slicks and Osman, they’ve been with the first team training heavily hard this week and you could see the difference with those guys,” he said. "You could see they put in a really good shift today.”
The one negative from the match was winger Nico Valentine suffering a very painful looking shoulder knock in the first half.
"We’re just waiting on that at the moment,” the Liverpudlian said. "I’ve got no news to report, but it’s unfortunate because he fell awkwardly, didn’t he? We just need to get a little bit more detail on that.”
Looking forward to the season, McGreal says development is the primary aim rather than a high finish in Professional Development League Two South.
"That is basically it, really,” he said. "If we can’t learn from that game today. We’ll do the footage, we’ve got Liverpool on Wednesday, we travel to Liverpool on Tuesday to go up north to play Liverpool and those are the games these guys want to test themselves in.
"Obviously you want to play first-team football, whether it’s here or the EFL and you want to start creating CVs for them and getting that men’s football because they’re at that age now where, as you see, physically they’re getting there, tactically you can see they’re getting there.
"That technical side, you’ve got to sharpen up because if you take two, three touches, as you’ve seen there, they get the ball taken off them.
"That’s when you do need that element of men’s football, but the room’s buzzing in there, they’re knackered, they’ve emptied the tanks, which you want, which you’d expect, but they’re absolutely buzzing in there. Credit to them, they’ve really enjoyed the day.”
He says he’d like to get a few out on loan to EFL clubs: "That’s what we look to try and do, try and get them towards the first team and get them a career, that’s what we want to do and that’s our main aim, and that’s why we’re here.
"It’s development football. As I say, there are tons and tons of positives we can take out of that game today and we’ll move forward and that can give us a good platform to work from going into the season.”
Town CEO Mark Ashton stated the club’s intention to move up to category one and McGreal says that’s already in progress.
"That’s been coming in over the last few months as such,” the 52-year-old said. "I think that’s coming in the near future.
"As you’ll know, there’s change at the training ground and different things going on, so the club is in an unbelievable position at the moment, so we’ve got to catch that up, really.
"As the first-team have gone double promotion, now as an academy we’ve got to catch that up as well.
"And there’s nothing better to play against a Bundesliga team and Borussia Mönchengladbach today, so it’s a great week’s work.”
McGreal says staffing numbers are already up. "That’s already happening, that’s already in place, He added. "As we move towards that, the guys above will make all those decisions. I’m here to try and get these lads a career in the game.”