An audacious chipped 83rd-minute penalty from Richards settled a closely-fought contest, and Potter praised the under-23 players that successfully stepped up to the plate on the night.
He said, “It was a good competitive game and great for the young lads to experience. It’s not so easy when you throw a team together and don’t do much work together.
“In fairness, they were well organised, worked on some good concepts and made it a competitive game.
“Overall, I am pleased that they got time on the pitch, and we got to look at them in a game situation. They did their best and acquitted themselves well.”
Potter was pleased to give summer signing Matthew Clarke 90 minutes in the heart of defence, and highlighted the importance of giving Aaron Connolly and Tomer Hemed some valuable game time.
“You forget he’s not that old [Clarke], but he’s played a lot of football and took the responsibility really well. I am happy that he came through 90 minutes.
“It was his [Hemed] first 45 minutes for a while, and he needed that. Same with Aaron, they’ve been with the group training and we’ll make some assessments as we go.”
A completely different Albion eleven will line up against Fulham in Aldershot on Saturday, and Potter spoke about fully utilising the squad across these two games.
“We’ll use the whole group and a few of the under-23 boys. A few of the older lads will also get some game time tomorrow.
“Some players can only do certain minutes in pre-season, but when you essentially throw a team together, you can’t expect too much, but their attitude was good tonight.”