"Result wise, it was pretty disappointing, but for 30 minutes, I'd say we were shading it.  It was a good work out and they have some good facilities at Stoke.  The lads put in a good account of themselves initially, but when we went a goal down their heads went down.  Then it began to get a bit more difficult for them.  It's a good learning curve, but a great work out for their first game."

"It was tough for them, against a tough opposition, that's the sort of thing you want to be playing against and if we want to try and get to where they are, where the premier league youth teams are, then we have to give a better account of ourselves.  From that point of view, the lads are a bit disappointed in themselves."

"Heads were down for a little while, and to be honest, my head was down for a spell after a result like that, but everyone has come in this morning and we are off again straight into a good session on the training ground.  Its early days, you don't win anything in July."

"It's a steep learning curve and it's all about the education.  I've said this before, but we suffered badly last year when we went a goal down.  We struggled to resurrect ourselves to keep it sure and to keep it safe, but hopefully we can get a bit better at it this year."

"It may have been a 4-0 defeat, but there were signs there and there is something there to work on. Your first pre-season game is all about the fitness and the lads did look pretty strong in their running.  Sharpness wise, we can get them there - we haven't done so much work on the sharpness yet.  There is plenty to work with and to be honest; we did have a young side with five second years missing plus one schoolboy in the team.  They made a good first impression."

"They have to move on from this, and we have Liverpool on Saturday (At Goshen, 10:30am kick off), it's a great game for us, they don't come much better than this at this level.  They were Youth Cup Finalists two years ago and it will be an interesting game, but at the end of the day, its eleven v eleven and a good chance for the lads to show what they've got."

"Its character building, it's about team strength not just about individuals, even though at the end of the day, they are all about individuals, but hopefully they can become better as a team as well in the future."

"I'm hoping they learn from the Stoke game, if they don't learn, they won't progress.  They have to take something out of every game and every training session.  Hopefully they have taken something out of the Stoke game and they will take something out of the game with Liverpool at the weekend."