Jordan Spence believes his young West Ham United team-mates are learning much for the future in their final Barclays Premier Reserve League South outings this season.
Many of the Hammers second string know that strong performances between now and the end of the campaign could help them to hit the ground running when the 2010/11 campaign comes around. The reserves may have been beaten 4-1 at Wolverhampton Wanderers last time out, but they were far from outclassed by a home side boasting nearly 2,000 senior league appearances between them.
In contrast, aside from Luis Boa Morte - who enjoyed a successful 45-minute run out on his return from eight months out with a knee ligament injury - Alex Dyer's team could muster just 57 league games.
Despite the gulf in experience, the visitors held firm for more than an hour, and were the better side for long periods both before and after Sergio Sanchez had equalised Sam Vokes' early opener.
Indeed, it was only a piece of Premier League class from Republic of Ireland left-back Stephen Ward that finally broke the Hammers' resistance with 25 minutes remaining. Set-piece goals from Greg Halford and Richard Stearman then gave the final scoreline a rather one-sided appearance.
"We're disappointed with the start we made," admitted captain Spence, "conceding a scrappy goal from an early set-play. We maybe should have reacted quicker, but after that setback, we did really well and put some pressure on them and found out feet in the game.
"We thoroughly deserved our equaliser. Sergio won his first header really well and reacted superbly to head in the rebound when the ball came back off the post. We then finished the first half the stronger of the two sides against what was a very experienced Wolves team.
"We went in at half-time and discussed that we wanted to be solid and push on from where we had left off, but we didn't find the same form and conceded two sloppy goals from set pieces and were also disappointed with the second goal we conceded. The difference in the scoreline was three set-pieces and were therefore avoidable."
Despite being just 19, Spence was again handed the armband by Dyer. Playing at the centre of a back-three alongside first-year scholar Sanchez and second-year scholar Callum McNaughton, the skipper was conscious of the need to lead his inexperienced defensive colleagues.
"I like to think I can help the players around me with my relative experience. Further to that, Sergio has played four games in a row and looks very accomplished at this level considering his age. Callum was outstanding too.
"We tried to set a firm footing for the rest of the team and, although we conceded four goals, we didn't defend badly in open play. They had two very experienced forwards in Sylvan Ebanks-Blake and Sam Vokes and it was a great experience for the boys to face them.
"We had Boa in midfield to give us some experience, and he was good for Josh Payne and Olly Lee. The challenge for the young players is something for them to enjoy. They had nothing to lose. The result was not as important as what they learned from the game, because you don't get to play against players of that standard in youth football."
Spence himself returned from a four-month loan spell at Championship side Scunthorpe United in December. His form since then has seen him involved in Gianfranco Zola's first-team squad in recent weeks, but the defender has also enjoyed being part of Dyer's reserve team.
Now, he is aiming to finish the season with victory over Fulham in the reserves' final league game of the season on Tuesday 27 April.
"In the weeks since I've come back from Scunthorpe, I can't think of a time when the performances haven't been of a good standard. We've had a young side that has stuck together and it would be a fitting reward for them to finish the season with a win and move into the summer knowing we've equipped ourselves well in the second half of the season."