Northampton Town Under 18s coach Shane Goddard wants his team to learn from their loss away to AFC Wimbledon in the EFL Youth Alliance League on Saturday.
Speaking after the match, Goddard said: “It was a bad day at the office.
“We can prepare as well as we want to but we need to turn up in matches.
“We were poor technically today and we gave the ball away far too often.
“We didn’t follow the game plan and AFC Wimbledon ran a lot harder than us.
“We pride ourselves on hard work but that wasn’t there today.
“We weren’t competitive and we allowed them to dominate, but AFC Wimbledon are a good side so take nothing away from them.
“We have to learn from today and use it as a tool to become better.”
The youth team will look to bounce back from their defeat when they host Gillingham next week.