Rusk spoke about the challenges of pitting a youthful side against a more experienced Liverpool outfit, with his players taking plenty of lessons from a tough afternoon in Lancing.
He said, “We’re disappointed to concede five goals at home and I don’t want to make excuses, but I thought that the early penalty changed the game, and we were a young team up against a strong Liverpool side.
“We were missing a number of players through injury or illness, and that happens, but the bottom line is the better team won on the day.
“I’m still pleased that we managed to hang in there and score three goals, so there are a lot of good things to reflect on.
“You need to have these difficult games, that’s where you learn and grow. The players will move on and learn from this.”
The under-23 coach spoke in more detail about the side he put out on the day, and highlighted the brilliant progress his squad has made since the start of the season.
“The boys have done very well this year, and to get 15 points on the board as a young team is a brilliant achievement.
“I’m not going throw my toys out the pram because we lost against a very strong Liverpool team. It happens.
“We had two scholars playing at centre midfield, who hung in well, and they will take plenty of experience from this game.
“We still showed our quality on the day, and that’s why we scored three goals. We were disappointed to be three down at half-time because I thought we got into some good areas ourselves. We just didn’t have a clinical edge.”