Rusk sees positives in defeat

Albion's under-23s ended their Premier League International Cup campaign with a 3-2 home defeat to Wolfsburg on Monday night, but head coach Simon Rusk was far from disheartened with their performance.

Bruce Talbot

2020-01-27T21:30:00Z

Albion under-23s coach Simon Rusk.

Goals from Bojan Radulovic and Teddy Jenks weren’t enough for the Seagulls, but they contributed to an entertaining game against the German group winners at the American Express Elite Performance Centre.

Rusk said, “It was a really good test, they have got some very good individuals. We finished the game with four youth-team players and they were a bit more experienced than us on the night.

“There were plenty of pluses though, it’s a good step forward for us and the positives far outweighed the negatives.”

Albion's players celebrate their first goal of the evening.

Wolfsburg led 3-1 at one stage before Jenks set up a grandstand finish with a goal in the 89th minute.

“Credit to the players. We went 3-1 down and heads could have dropped but they showed good character, hung in the game and got a second goal which I thought we deserved,” added Rusk.

“It was a high-intensity game for our boys to compete in and they will have learned a lot.

“You have to respect Wolfsburg, who put four past a good Valencia team as well as West Ham so all credit to our boys, for pushing them back in the closing stages trying to get a draw.”