Ian Holloway said that Swindon Town added a lot to their "stew" despite a 2-1 defeat at the hands of Plymouth Argyle.
Plymouth took the lead from a Ronan Curtis penalty, but excellent work from Antwoine Hackford saw him pull Swindon level.
The second half saw chances at both ends, and James Ball thought that he had won it for Swindon, only for him to be called offside after turning home Anthony Munda's corner.
With the match seemingly headed for penalties, Seb Campbell struck deep into stoppage time to win it for the Pilgrims.
Holloway believed that Swindon offered a lot of positive signs for their development, even if they fell to a defeat.
He said: "I have got every right to tell them because I'm proud of my team. I'm proud of my squad.
"I had a 16-year-old [Freddie Hoare] kid in that team. They had some young ones. They put a lot of their first team on at the end, and they still feel we did well.
"I'm very, very proud of our fans who turned up, who behaved in the right way. I'm very proud that Argyle are who they are now, and look at it; it's wonderful in here. So there's progress everywhere.
"Like I said the other day, you have got to be a stew. You have got to keep boiling the pot, and eventually, you believe it'll taste right.
"The more new ingredients you put in there, the better it's going to be. Hopefully, you won't sell too many of the bigger ones.
"You keep it going and keep stirring it, and I'm really pleased with a lot of that today. I have to say that, but we've lost.
"If I don't pick them and I disappoint them, they should say, 'You silly old bugger, come on, play me.' That's the attitude they should have.
"That's how it used to be. It should be. 'Oh, I want to be in your team. I'm going to show you,' because that's their job to show me, and not my job to pick them.
"They have got to earn the right to be in there, and I think a load of them tried to do that tonight."
Holloway was especially pleased by what Hackford showed in scoring his second Swindon goal, and displaying the kind of electric pace that saw Swindon sign him in the first place.
He said: "I don't think anybody thought it was a goal because they couldn't believe how quick he was.
"And that's probably the first time he showed us absolutely how quick he is.
"It was weird because it didn't look like it went in. So people didn't look like they were celebrating. I did because I saw it was in, and I see him do that week in, week out.
"There's a lot more he can do than that, but that's the pace that is in there, and we have got to try and get him to use it."
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