Nottingham Forest boss Chris Hughton hinted goalkeeper Ethan Horvath has given him food for thought, after his performance in the Carabao Cup.
The Reds manager spoke of his pride in his young team, having given a good account of themselves despite being beaten 4-0 by Wolverhampton Wanderers in the second round tie.
Horvath was one of their standout performers, making some strong saves to keep the hosts in the game up until the hour mark.
And with first-choice Brice Samba having come in for some criticism for his displays in the league, the American may well have applied some pressure.
“I am seeing some good competition from Ethan - from both games he has played and in training,” Hughton said. “That’s exactly why I brought him in.”
The first half was largely one-way traffic at the City Ground, but Forest kept a strong visiting side at bay.
They could have taken the lead themselves soon after the interval, when Oliver Hammond headed wide.
But Romain Saiss and Daniel Podence scored within two minutes of each other with 60 minutes gone. Francisco Trincao and Morgan Gibbs-White then put gloss on the scoreline for the visitors right at the death, again finding the net barely 120 seconds apart.
“I’m incredibly proud of a young group of players who would have been incredibly excited, and maybe a little bit fearful, when they saw the team Wolves were going to put out,” said Hughton.
“They would have learnt from the previous round, albeit against different opposition.
“As soon as you saw that team, you knew it was going to be a very, very tough night.
“It’s the type of game where if you concede early, it could be a bad night.
“We had to rely on Ethan to pull out some good saves - he was excellent tonight.
“Probably the only disappointment was I thought we gifted them two of the goals. Without them, it would have been an incredibly respectable result for a team that had seven academy lads playing.
“We held them for an hour. The only disappointment is we gave away two soft goals.
“I’d have to say, I am prouder tonight than I was after the first game (in the cup, against Bradford City). All due respects to Bradford, it’s a different level.
“Bradford were a side who sat off and allowed us to have really good possession in the first half.
“Tonight, any possession we had, we had to really work for.
“I’m prouder on this one. I think the players will learn immensely from it, and will certainly know you can’t afford to make the mistakes we did for a couple of the goals.”
