AS Eric Kinder reflects on his second and final season in charge of Blackburn Rovers U21s he insists it could not have gone better.

That may sound strange seeing as his young side came within a whisker of causing an almighty shock in the final of the U21s Premier League Cup.

Rovers held their older and more experienced opponents Southampton to a 0-0 draw in the first leg at Ewood Park.

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The Saints, featuring nine players with first-team appearances, took the lead in the second leg in front of 12,356 supporters at St Mary’s.

But Rovers hit back to equalise and, after Southampton were reduced to 10 men, they were denied a clear-cut penalty in injury-time.

The referee waived away their appeals, however, and it was the 10-man Saints who won it in injury-time.

But as gut-wrenching as the 2-1 aggregate defeat was, Kinder can look back at a season of genuine success for Rovers’ development squad.

He said: “If you look at the results at the start of the season they were good but when winter approached they fell away and we found it a little bit tough.

“But what reignited our season was the older lads coming back off loan from clubs in the Football League.

“They came back just as we started the cup run. They helped us get through the first two rounds before two of them were transferred and three of them broke into the first-team squad.

“But during that time the younger lads learned from them and they finished the season really well, deservedly won their semi-final against Reading, and then ran one of the best academies really close in the final.

“The two games against Southampton were fantastic for everybody and looking back it’s pleasing to know how close we actually were.

“It’s just that you can’t help thinking what might have been if we’d have been given that penalty in the last minute. The celebration may have been down to 25 people rather than 12,500.

“But if someone had said to me you could either win the U21s Cup final but not see anybody break into the first team, or lose the U21s Cup final and see three make their full first-team debuts, then it’s a no-brainer.

“We had David Raya, John O’Sullivan and Darragh Lenihan all play for the first team and a 17-year-old in Ryan Nyambe make the bench in two games so, along with getting to a national final, it has to go down as a good season.”

Kinder has now stepped down from the U21s job to concentrate his efforts fully on his new role as the club’s head of academy.

The lifelong Rovers fan believes the development squad is in better shape than it was when he returned to the club last summer.

“I found it difficult in the first year,” said Kinder, who coached in Rovers’ academy from 1999-2006 before spending seven years heading up Carlisle United’s U18s.

“I didn’t think the players we had were dedicated enough and that was hard to take for someone who grew up a Blackburn Rovers supporter.

“But this season’s side have been terrific because all they want to be is footballers.

“They’ve all enjoyed putting on the blue and white shirt and they’ve gone out there and given us everything.”

Kinder will be replaced as Rovers’ U21s head coach.

John Filan, however, will continue to act as the new man’s assistant.

“John’s been a great appointment,” said Kinder of the former Rovers goalkeeper.

“I’d never met John before, although obviously I knew who he was, but we struck up an instant friendship and he has been absolutely magnificent.

“And the whole U21s staff have been terrific. Whoever gets that job will find themselves working with first-class people who are first-class at their job.”