Terry Westley

Terry Westley felt that there were a lot of positives to come out of last night's narrow reserve team defeat to Aston Villa, not least the performance of Martin Taylor.

With Liam Ridgewell and Franck Queudrue both suspended for this weekend's Premier League trip to Wigan, Taylor could make his return to first team action at the JJB Stadium.

And Westley believes that the competitive nature of the second string derby was just what the big defender needed to hone his skills ahead of Saturday's match.

"We had enough opportunities to get at least a draw from the game so we were unfortunate to lose," commented Westley.

"But there were a lot of positives to come out of it in terms of the performances of the senior players.

"They all had a very competitive match on an excellent surface at Villa Park.

Martin Taylor enjoyed a very competitive run-out in last night's reserve game.

"It was exactly what Martin Taylor needed after he missed so many games, particularly bearing in mind he might be needed to play in the first team on Saturday.

"I'm sure the manager (Alex McLeish) and his staff were also delighted by that and how close and competitive the game was."

Westley acknowledged that one piece of skill from Patrick Berger proved the difference between the sides.

But overall he was delighted by the experience gained by the younger members of his squad, who were pitting their wits against older and wiser opponents on a big stage at Villa Park.

"Villa fielded a good team with the likes of Zat Knight, Isaiah Osbourne, Wayne Routledge, Patrick Berger and Stuart Taylor," continued Westley.

"So they had some experience and their younger ones were older than ours, with 20 and 21-year-olds compared to our three schoolboys.

"One of those was Adam Newbury, who is 16 and came in to make his reserve team debut.

Last night's game was a learning curve for schoolboy striker Jake Jervis.

"We edged it on chances in the first half and two of those fell to another of the schoolboys, Jake Jervis.

"But it was a great experience for Jake to be up against a £4m defender in Zat Knight and he would have learned so much from last night's game.

"The only goal came through a great bit of vision from Berger and with his magical left foot he slid in Sam Williams to score their winner.

"We lost possession and within a split second the ball was in the back of our net and that was the type of quality game it was.

"We were huffed and puffed in the second half but just couldn't get the goal that our overall play deserved.

"But it looks like Villa are going to win the league and we were really competitive against them."