KELVIN Young’s trainer insists that his punishing defeat at the hands of Kiril Psonko isn’t the end of the road for the Penhill fighter.

The 27-year-old super-middleweight was unable to rise to the occasion as he stepped out for his 20th fight, with the ‘Young Gun’ left battered and bruised as he was emphatically stopped midway through the eighth and final round of his headline bout at the Oasis Leisure Centre.

The home crowd were left stunned as Young was dropped three times in quick succession by his experienced Lithuanian opponent, who has been in with the likes of George Groves and Chris Eubank Jr, before referee Jeff Hinds brought the contest to a halt.

But Horseshoe Gym trainer Farnan paid tribute to his boxer’s capacity to recover from as setback, highlighting the way Young bounced back from his defeat to Sam Couzens just under a year ago, and is backing him to roar back once again.

“I know what the critics will say but it’s not the end of the road for Kelvin. It’s not the end of the world at all,” said Farnan.

“When he lost to Sam Couzens, in the next fight (a re-match with Couzens for the Southern Area title) he was sensational. After the fight, he was talking about a re-match and I’m sure that’s what he’ll look at next. He will bounce back.

“His eye had closed up a little bit but I think his pride was hurt the most.

“The game-plan was for him to out-box the guy. I wanted him to give me eight rounds of quality boxing and not get into a war with him.

“He was supposed to work off the jab and set up the longer shots when he felt comfortable to do so. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen.

“We need to sit down and look at things and I imagine we’ll look at the next step happening in the new year.”

Young’s manager Keith Mayo added: “It’s upsetting. It’s totally against our plan.

“When you looked at his record, you just thought Kelvin was good enough to do the job really. But it was one of those bad nights.

“You could see Psonko grow in confidence as the rounds were going on. He just came on top in the end and got the better of him.

“He was slow to get started and he had a virus halfway through the camp. It’s done now.

“We’ll have to sit down and look at it next week. It is a setback. He’ll shake himself down and come back.”