Chris Cohen hopes Nottingham Forest's young players benefit from the pain of losing a penalty shootout.
The Under-23s were beaten by Swansea City in the Premier League Cup, 3-0 on spot-kicks after it finished 0-0 following extra-time.
It was a tough day for highly-rated midfielder Johnson as he missed in the shootout too, but Cohen hopes he and his teammates emerge stronger for the experience of being beaten in the quarter-finals.
"They probably take it a bit harder than senior players, losing like this, but for their development it might be better," the Reds coach said.
"Of course you want to win trophies and have a winning mentality, but at this stage of their career losing and learning might help them when they get to the first team.
"It's a shame to lose again after losing the play-off final last year, but we hope the lads learn from this."
Cohen felt Forest were the stronger side at Alfreton's Impact Arena, but he admitted his team were sorely lacking in quality in attacking areas on the day as they failed to create a chance of note bar Johnson's missed penalty.
"We were most definitely the better team without having that quality in the final third," he said.
"We lacked quality from set-pieces. That's not to say the ball in was always bad. Sometimes it's about your determination to get in front of your man.
"We had the great chance with the penalty to go ahead, but couldn't take it. We looked really solid at the back, which was pleasing.
"We're gutted for the lads much more than ourselves as staff. You don't get many chances to win things in your career no matter the level.
"In terms of effort and endeavour, anyone who watches our team at under-23 level knows we always have that, but we didn't have quality today."
