Glyn Hodges has given his bright young reserves the thumbs-up for a progressive season that saw them spread their wings to spice up their regular menu with a tantalising taste of European football.

Coach Hodges pitted his charges against Chelsea twice and Rangers in prestige friendlies to finish off a campaign that saw City reserves fly to tackle rivals Santander and Schalke during City's UEFA Cup run.

Those matches, a key part of Glyn's strategy for a squad that took fifth place in the Barclays Premier Reserve League North and second in the Totesport.com League West, have whetted his players' appetites.

The Blues coach joked: "We'll miss not being in Europe almost as much as the first-team players will! We've got a very good group and we've been able to get them a varied programme including a couple of trips abroad.

"We joined the first team twice on UEFA Cup trips and we were pleased with those games in Spain and Germany with Santander and Schalke. It would have been more, but Hamburg were not keen to do it.

"We also played Chelsea and Rangers. The plan was always to fit in a couple of friendlies before the lads went off for summer, but to face such quality opposition was fantastic and a bonus for the players.

"Chelsea sent a very talented side to the Stadium and we gave a great account of ourselves. Greg Cunningham's first game for me was to mark Ricardo Quaresma, which will have done him the world of good.

"Chelsea won 3-2 but a week later we beat them 3-2 at Stamford Bridge. They included players such as Michael Mancienne and Scott Sinclair. Robbie Mak, Vladimir Weiss and David Ball scored our goals.

"We ended by playing Rangers at their training complex in Glasgow - we did OK but they had a bit too much for us with the likes of Barry Ferguson, DeMarcus Beasley and Lee McCulloch, and we lost 5-2.

"We'll be looking to fix up similar games next season. It's important they should have these different games. It's an invaluable learning experience, coming up against different styles in different stadiums."