"We took the chance to give some of our other players a full 90 minutes of football. Some of them are players from the under-16s and one of the substitutes, Ali Asgari, is actually an under-15s player," said the Academy coach.
"The players had never played together as a team before and, even though the effort was certainly there, our inexperience showed.
"We were never going to risk injuring any of our FA Youth Cup players, because that is obviously a much more important game.
"We now have everyone fit and ready for Monday, so in that way, this game has benefited us greatly."