Manchester City U21 coach Bryan Barry-Murphy says the players will learn from their early EFL Trophy exit.

City have been bundled out at the group stage yesterday's 3-0 defeat to Bradford City with Tyler Smith scoring a hat-trick.

Barry-Murphy told City's website: It's hard for the young players to process that they can have so many good moments in the game and lose 3-0," he said.

“I managed Tyler Smith when he was at Rochdale and the significant learning, for our centre-backs in particular, was that he's watching the game and waiting for one more [chance] where he can impact the scoreline.

“We don't see that at PL2 level so that experience for them will be invaluable."

He added: “Based on what we've seen in this competition, a lot of Under-21 teams have lost heavily so we almost have to show our players a way of chasing a game.

“We were patient but we created numerous chances to score and we just couldn't find the goal.

“I was impressed with how we handled that emotionally because I think at half-time the players were shocked with the scoreline which is very normal.

“But our reaction in the second half was fine. I really enjoyed that."