Tommy Doyle says he and his City Under-21s team-mates will seek to heed the lessons of what was a frustrating Leasing.com Trophy exit to Scunthorpe.
On a disappointing night at the Sands Venue Stadium, the City youngsters went down to a 3-1 defeat in our last 16 tie.
City never truly recovered from a tough first half hour which saw the Iron score three times.
And though Doyle narrowed the deficit with a penalty in what was a much improved second half display, City also spurned a number of other excellent opportunities to signal the end of our EFL Trophy campaign.
And the 18-year-old believes he and his colleagues will digest the lessons and learn from the setback.
“Obviously, it is massively disappointing, and we are gutted to have gone out,” Doyle admitted.
“I think the first half killed us and we could have been a lot better in the first 30 minutes. We made a few mistakes though their first goal you can’t do much about.
“I think the second half we showed a bit more about what we are about but with the chances we create we should score.
“We can’t keep relying on free kicks or penalties we need to start scoring more and punish teams.
“We have had the problem of not punishing teams all season. We create a lot and sometimes we don’t finish – we need to be ruthless in both boxes.
“In Premier League 2, you have teams that pass the ball and press, but this tournament you are dealing with long balls and big strong men.
