Craig Short felt Monday night’s Premier League Cup clash with Colchester United exposed Derby County Under 23s’ young player to a real battling test.
The Rams were held to a 2-2 draw as the U’s fought back from two goals down to earn a share of the spoils at the Weston Homes Community Stadium in the latest Group C clash.Charles Vernam struck twice in the first half – his eighth and ninth goals of a productive personal season – before Dion Sembie-Ferries and Cameron James scored from close range either side of the half time interval.
Darren Wassall’s young Derby outfit came up against a Colchester side containing a handful of first team players, including Will Hoskins and Jermaine Grandison.
Short, the Under 23s’ assistant coach, felt it was a game that either side could have won in the end, but was keen to focus on the positives of the Rams’ young players battling to earn a point in Essex.
Derby’s former centre back told RamsTV: “We’re a little bit disappointed not to have won the game, although we didn’t feel that we deserved to be 2-0 up when we were at that time.
“We spoke to the players beforehand about how important set pieces are and three of the four goals came from them.
“Once Colchester got it back to 2-2 you would have felt that they would be in the ascendancy, but we had a few chances in the second half to get that winner and were better going forward.
“We expected a battle and they were a physical side. Will Hoskins was in there who has played at Football League level for a number of years now and a few others as well.
“It was a tough ask for all of our players and it is part of their development to come across players like that.
“We had a young side out there and two Under 18s on the bench, which is the knock-on of a few players going into the first-team.
“It’s a good experience for the young lads coming through. We wanted to build on the Liverpool performance because after a game like that the expectation might have been that we would come here and do really well.
“As a result, we could easily have caved in at 2-2, but we didn’t. Josh Lelan was tremendous at centre back.”
Short also reserved praise for Derby’s goalscorer Vernam.
The 20-year-old extended what had been a standout couple of days for him personally as he signed a new two-and-a-half year contract, was named on the senior substitutes bench for the first time against Wigan Athletic and now netted two goals.
Vernam should have completed his hat trick in the dying embers of the game, but Short does not want the forward to dwell on the agonising miss.
He added: “He should have had a hat-trick, but he’s been outstanding all season. He played against Liverpool up front and did very, very well and tonight he played in a midfield role.
“Charles is one of those professionals who is in early every day and works very hard on his technique. He will angry at missing that chance, but he has scored some excellent goals this season.”
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