Peter Murphy felt Preston North End reserves put in a “dominant performance” as they began the Central League campaign with a 2-0 victory over Bolton Wanderers.
Fielding a mix of youth and experience, PNE made their quality count and took three points in the season opener thanks to a brace from right wing back Josh Seary.
North End had created plenty of openings in the first 45 minutes, but the goal just wouldn’t arrive, before Seary netted two decent strikes in the second period.
Peter said: “I’m pleased with the performance. Obviously there’s older lads in there coming in to get minutes under their belt and young lads in to make their mark in the gaffer’s eye and the staff’s eye, and everyone was excellent.
“I think when you get the goal in the second half it just sort of settles our lads down.
“I think that was all that was missing first half really, and I thought the second half was a dominant performance.”
When Peter – who took the team alongside John Welsh on Tuesday – was brought in as a coach during the summer, manager Ryan Lowe explained that a key part of his role would be to focus on the development of the club’s younger players.
Since the squad returned for pre-season, there have been a number of Academy products involved in first team training, as well as a number of professional debuts being handed out.
Peter said: “The majority of them have been up training with the first team throughout pre-season and they’ve been excellent.
“They’ve been on the pitch in pre-season, some in the Salford game the other week, and another pleasing performance today.
“We want them up here working day in, day out with the senior pros we’ve got.
“They’ve got great examples all over that first team dressing room and that’s got to be where they want to be.
“If they can pick up little habits like the way the lads train and put that together with their own game then it’s only going to bode well for them.”