Crystal Palace U23 coach Richard Shaw says his players will learn from this season's inconsistent campaign.
Shaw says he is pleased with how the club's academy players have stepped up this season, adding that playing with older players will be good for their development.
Speaking to the club website, Shaw said: "It has been up and down; it was difficult when I first came in because we had a lot of boys aged between 21 and 23 who needed to get out on loan in my opinion.
"It could have been easy to have had them around and won every game but I didn't think that was progress.
"They've gone out and are forging their careers in the Football League where it counts, and they need to do that.
"Because of that, we knew we would be playing on the stretch this year with youngsters, although we didn't think they would be this young. However, they will benefit from this season and come back stronger having tested themselves at this level.
"We're in development and people lose sight of that. It's easy to sit there and play U23 football and win the league, and teams now are keeping 23-year-olds around meaning some of our guys are playing against players five years older than them.
"We had nine scholars play against Colchester earlier in the season and they had a team of U23s, and seven against Leeds recently, and we beat them both, which were great results."
Source: tribalfootball.com