Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was pleased with the performances of Manchester United debutants Ethan Laird, Dishon Bernard and Dylan Levitt in the 2-1 Europa League defeat at Astana.
Bernard, 19, suffered the crushing blow of scoring an own goal to decide the game but was name checked by Solskjaer in his analysis of United's first European defeat of the campaign.
"We're disappointed with the end result but I thought we started the game fantastically," Solskjaer said. "The boys took control of the game, scored a fantastic goal, and the response after they scored two was also good.
"I was disappointed with that little 10-minute spell, you could feel pressure was coming, we couldn't get on the ball as we did but some fantastic performances by the three young lads who made their debut, all were excellent."
Bernard, 18-year-old Laird and Levitt, 19, completed 90 minutes in the Astana Arena, where three fellow academy graduates D'mani Mellor, Largie Ramazani and Ethan Galbraith debuted off the bench.
United are expected to loan out some of their youngsters in the January transfer window but Brandon Williams and Mason Greenwood have become first-team squad regulars and Solskjaer believes others are close to earning a full-time promotion.
"Some of them are also knocking on the door for us," he added. "You could see the way we dominated midfield, Jimmy [Garner] and Dylan playing together, it's nice to see midfielders dominating the game.
"Dishon was so composed, Ethan was marauding down the right-hand side, especially in the first-half. So some of these have done themselves a good favour.
"You could see the crowd enjoyed the game, you could see from the dressing room [Astana] were happy for the win but I felt we played really well. We want to congratulate them for the win and they've been a fantastic host as well."
