MICHAEL Duff hailed the performance of his Under-23s side despite seeing Burnley miss out on Premier League Cup progression.

A 1-0 defeat to holders Swansea City at Curzon Ashton's Tameside Stadium saw the Clarets eliminated, with Duff's side needing a point or better to make into the last-32.

It was a disappointing end to Burnley's Premier League Cup campaign, with the Clarets winning away at Category One sides Swansea and Newcastle, but defeats at Colchester and at home to the Swans and the Magpies saw them eliminated.

But Duff was pleased with the display of his side, especially as he fielded a weakened team with some under-23 regulars set to play in a behind closed doors game on Tuesday.

"I thought we were excellent," he said."We had five under-18s playing in the game and some of them did really well.

"You don't want to get beat but Swansea won that competition with that team, they're a lot older, and we were the width of the woodwork from going through.

"We've asked them to play a slightly different way, we were a bit more direct, a bit more compact, and they delivered it well considering they've only had a day to work on it and it was a difficult pitch.

"They're a good team and I thought we'd made them look pretty ordinary.

"We've just fallen at the last hurdle, but there'll be other opportunities I'm sure and they will learn from it.

"Swansea are a technical team and we've managed to get about them and take them out of their comfort zone."

Kenji Gorre had given Swansea the lead in a tight first-half but after the break Ntumba Massanka hit the bar and Jordan Barnett blazed a good chance over.

"That was a good bit of play (from Massanka) and the one that dropped to Jordan Barnett, who just seemed to snatch at his shot," Duff said.

"It was little margins, Jordan Cropper can throw it to the back post but nothing quite seemed to drop for us.

"It was a lot more positive than what it has been in recent weeks."

Duff praised right-back Cropper's performance, who combined his dangerous long throw with a composed display.

"It was his first game of under-23s football, and he did very well," the former Clarets centre back said.

"He's got a USP with his long throw but there's more to him than that, he looked comfortable.

"We're about the players. The result was disappointing but in the general league games it's about the players constantly."

Burnley are back in league action at Sheffield Wednesday on Thursday with the game coming thick and fast now.

"There's lots of games coming up now so the team is going to change constantly," Duff said.

"It's just trying to get them to learn that there's different ways to play, we want them to play at times but we want them to learn how to dig in, kick somebody up in the air, run in behind sometimes and then play again."