Athletic youth team boss Tony Philliskirk saluted the club's youngsters after they drew 1-1 with Chesterfield in the Youth Alliance League.
Kelfala Sheriff equalised in the second half after Chesterfield took the lead early in the game.
Athletic pressed for a winner but unfortunately could not find the winning goal.
Philliskirk was happy with the performance of his players.
He said: “I’ve got to be honest and say I was really pleased.
“It was our first game since January 6 because of the weather, we had such a young team out because a lot of the lads are out on loan and we had a couple of players back from long term injuries playing their first game so overall it was pleasing.
“It was a smashing performance considering all this and we probably deserved to win the game because we finished strongly.
“Chesterfield were older and bigger physically than us and every time they had a set piece, they caused us problems.
“We could have been organised better and that’s where their goal came from. We could have crumbled but we hung in in the first half and it was a bonus to go in 0-1 down at half time.
“We changed the system and got a foot hold in the game. We scored a fantastic goal and we had been working a lot on that in training.
“To see the players take what we have been working on in training into a game situation was pleasing to see so all in all there were a lot of positives to take from the game.”
