Coleraine Under-20s coach Marty Smith has challenged his players to take the learnings from their European adventure and kick on from it.
The young Bannsiders exited the UEFA Youth League at the hands of Genk, with the Belgians running out 10-1 winners on aggregate.
Smith though said they were a lot of positives for him and his players to take away from their games against Genk and FK Pobeda, which he hopes can push the squad closer to first-team action at The Showgrounds.
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"It's been a great learning curve for myself and the players," he told the club's Twitter page.
"To see how good teams are technically and see how they prepare to play in this environment.
"The players have to take that home with them and keep learning and developing.
"Hopefully they use this to kick on over the next 12-18 months and get in and around our first team set-up, because ultimately that's the aim of our Under-20s."
Coleraine went down 6-1 in Belgium but Smith was pleased with his players' response after a difficult first half at the KRC Genk Arena.
Jack Patton netted for the visitors, who were unlucky not to add more goals to their tally in the second half.
"It was great to get a goal and on the day we maybe could have had a couple more given the chances we created," said Smith.
"We created more chances in the second half than we did in the entire first leg.
"The boys could have rolled over after the first half performance, but they stood up to it and created chances.
"We knew we were going to be in for a difficult afternoon, we knew that before we came here.
"It proved to be a difficult afternoon, but the lads can hold their heads high particularly given their second half performance."
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