SWINDON Town U18s manager Alan McLoughlin hopes the club’s young players learnt some valuable lessons after a youthful development side fell to a heavy 5-0 defeat away at their Bristol Rovers counterparts in the Central League this morning.

Teenage striker Scott Twine was the only member of Town’s first-team squad to feature against Rovers, alongside another of last season’s Academy graduates Tom Ouldridge.

Rovers’ added experience and physicality was evident from the off at Oaklands Park Stadium and the home side roared into a three-goal lead at the break before pulling further clear after half-time.

McLoughlin was fully aware that his young troops faced a difficult afternoon but hopes they can take something out of contest to improve the level of their own games.

“I wasn’t expecting to come here and win and credit to Bristol Rovers, they had a very strong side out and thoroughly deserved to win, but it is difficult when you are up against a side filled with experience to play a youth team against them,” said McLoughlin.

“For the players’ development, there will be areas where they learnt a lot.

“They need to be more aggressive in their communication to each other, there was a lot of ball watching going on and maybe the occasion of playing against so many pros and older players might have got to them a little bit.

“If they have got aspirations of playing higher and doing better, they need to embrace these situations. They will learn a lot about manning up and that you’re not beat until you are beat, it doesn’t matter who you are playing against.

“The players that want to stand out and make a difference are the ones who stick their chest out. Those are the characters who will move forward in the game and the meek and mild will soon get found out.

“Hopefully they have learned lessons that being nice isn’t necessarily the way forward. I don’t want them to be aggressive and kick and elbow people, but they just take a little bit more ownership on the pitch to try to be better.”

After a dominant start by Rovers, trialist Ollie Cook broke the deadlock midway through the first half when a free-kick into the Town box was not cleared and the centre-back pounced to prod home from 10 yards.

Dom Telford then struck twice himself, the latter in the final minute of the half after a long ball over the top, as the hosts headed to the changing rooms with a comfortable advantage.

Ollie Rejek cannoned an effort against the post as Swindon tried to be positive after the restart but they fell further behind before the hour when Joe Romanski headed into his own net.

Rovers substitute Rhys Kavanagh then rounded off the scoring with 10 minutes to play with a cool finish from a tight angle.

SWINDON TOWN: Matthews, Giamattei, Spalding, Ouldridge, Romanski, Graham, Rejek, Twine, Pryce, Edwards, Bancroft. Subs: Stanley, Drag, Dunstan-Digweed, Atik, Dugan.