Youth Team Manager Dave Bentley gives his thoughts after the penalty shoot-out defeat against Cheltenham Town after a match which saw Chesterfield the better of the two teams in normal and extra time and he talks about the season as a whole as well.

Apart from the penalty shoot out result, the game was a carbon copy of the first round victory over Notts County when it should have been over and done with before they scored:

Yes, it was a bit disappointing, I thought we were well in the driving seat throughout the game to be fair and we lost a goal a few minutes before the end, like you say, very similar to the game at Notts. We couldn't just take it on and get that extra goal. I'm also a little bit disappointed with the situation at the end when the lads allowed two Under 16 players to take penalties (Lowe & Williams) instead of some of the older lads taking a bit more responsibility, but credit to the young lads. I said to them that they've missed a penalty but had the bottle to go up and take one.

But the overall standard of play over 120 minutes was good:

Yes, I was pleased with that, I couldn't fault their attitude or their work-rate, I just felt the final pass let us down a little bit in certain areas but it's disappointing to go out of the competition.

In league terms, when of course you can use third year scholars as well, the cup game was second years and under, you're having a terrific season:

We're having a fantastic season, I've been very pleased with the attitude and commitment throughout the season, we've played 13 games now, won 10 of those, drawn 1 and lost just 2 so we're going in the right direction so hopefully we can go on and win the league, that's our aim now after going out of the two Cup competitions.

There was a big reorganisation of the league set up in the summer, has it made it better?

The Youth Alliance has changed right round. We used to play until February and then go into a merit league and we found things a bit off putting because you didn't know where you were going to be throughout the season but we've got a clear aim now and that is to try and win the league. The boys have set the target and actually we're above our expectations and targets so I'm pleased with how things are going. We've had some excellent performances both individually and collectively.