Eddie Gray has claimed that Leeds United pair Tom Pearce and Jay-Roy Grot were rare positives to come out of the defeat to Sheffield Wednesday on Saturday.
The Whites slipped to yet another loss in the Championship as they were beaten by their Yorkshire rivals 2-1 at Elland Road.
Paul Heckingbottom’s side now have just six points during the eight league fixtures under the new manager and have slipped down the table.
The Yorkshire giants are now 14th in the league standings and will need to turn their focus to next season after another failed attempt at promotion.
Gray has found some shinning light from the loss to Wednesday and identified the young pair of Pearce and Grot.
Pearce, 19, made his first-team debut at the weekend as the club continue to try find a solution to their left-back problem.
Meanwhile, 20-year-old Grot was used as a late second-half substitution and did get on the scoresheet, which was his first goal for the club since his summer arrival.
“There were a couple of plus points for us today: the young boy making his debut at left-back. He did okay, it was a tough debut for him. It was always going to be hard because we’re not playing particularly well. And Grot coming on and scoring his first goal for the club. That was a plus,” Gray told LUTV.
OPINION
Pearce is a promising young talent from the club’s academy and deserved his chance in the starting XI given past failures from more senior members of the squad. The full-back struggled at times to deal with Wednesday, but overall it was a display that suggested he could have a future at the club and would improve with more experience. Grot’s late cameo is something that should please the manager and it seems like a spell with the Under-23s has done him the world of good. The Dutchman is a powerful attacker that could be a real weapon if he finds his feet at Elland Road.