John Dempster has revealed his disappointed in seeing the young Sky Blues fall to defeat late on against Sheffield Wednesday, during the final moments of a game in which victory was possible.
After falling behind early on, City's Under-21s side fought back to draw level with 13 minutes left on the clock, when substitute Harrison Nee turned home a pass from Fabio Tavares.
From there, the Sky Blues were in the ascendency, and could have snatched all three points had they found another route past Wednesday stopper Luke Jackson.
However, it would be the visitors who left as winners, with Max Haygarth firing home a late winner.
"It was a tough contenst, which it always is against Sheffield Wednesday. They're very competitive and they get amongst you," he said.
"We had a lot of the ball but they seemed to attack us too easily on the coutner attack, as we were too open at times, and that led to them having plenty of opportunities.
"We dominated the first half but we didn't do a lot with that possession. We were lacking that understanding as a group, which is normal when you're putting a team together that has first team players and younger players.
"During the second half we stepped up and created a goal from a set piece and I think there were more goals in the game, which makes it all the more disappointing to concede a goal as late as we did.
"But I would like to credit to Sheffield Wednesday for the performance that they put in."
Despite the defeat, the fixture allowed a number of first team players to bank valuable minutes as they look to force their way into Mark Robins' thoughts.
Amongst those to swap The Sky Blues Lodge for The Alan Higgs Centre were Fabio Tavares, Todd Kane and Josh Eccles - who all played from the start.
"The first team players have come across for minutes and they got that, which is important because we want them to be ready when called upon," Dempster continued.
"The younger players around them performed well; others need to do better - but that's development football. So long as the players recover properly and get back into the training field, we'll be happy."