Aston Villa Ladies boss Joe Hunt praised the performances of his young players despite their 3-1 Continental Tyres Cup defeat by Yeovil Town.
Alys Hinchcliffe put the Glovers ahead only for Olivia Fergusson to level for Villa.
But second-half goals from Nicola Cousins and Annie Heatherson sealed a second Cup win for Yeovil.
Yeovil Town 3-1 Aston Villa
FA WSL Continental Tyres Cup
Group Three
Sunday 16 August
Sherborne Town FC
However, Hunt was left encouraged by the displays of debutant Georgia Griffiths and England youth-teamer Lucy Porter.
“Georgia Griffiths had an outstanding debut,” Hunt told the official Villa website.
“We have waited patiently for her to get herself up to speed and felt the game was the right time to play her.
“We could see she was nervous to start with but she still did the ugly things well. She rattled into tackles, put her body on the line and gradually grew into it.
“In the second half she was class. She made positive runs, she showed her passing range and the ability to dominate her player.
“I'm hoping this is the start of her now and she'll take off, because if she does she'll be frightening.”
“They will be huge players for this football club”
Hunt on Villa's youngsters
He added: “We also got Lucy Porter on the pitch which was good to see.
“Lucy has been around the group for a year but has suffered some horrible injures.
“For someone who has just come out of Centre of Excellence football, she fits in to what we want at senior level very well.
“But we'll try and manage her well, like we have with Mollie Rouse.
“They will be huge players for this football club, they are in and around the squad now and will be pushing the senior players hard for a place.”
The defeat leaves Villa bottom of Group Three without a win in their three matches, while Yeovil moved level on points with the three FA WSL 1 teams above them, Birmingham City, Bristol Academy and Notts County.
Hunt said: “It was an incredibly difficult game for us but I thought we were unlucky. To get to half-time at 1-1 was very good, we rode our luck at times but grew into the game.
“In the second half we played exceptional well. We had good chances and good opportunities to take the lead but it never quite happened.
“At one point we were camped in the Yeovil half but we never punished them in that spell. We then concede from a corner which we should defend better and the third is just a sucker punch at the end of the game as we're chasing the equaliser.
“We are slowly turning the corner. I sound like a broken record most weeks but we do play some good football.”
