Royle was forced to make six changes to his starting eleven, after a combination of injuries and suspensions left Joe with no choice but to throw in the youngsters, Danny Haynes had to pull out on the coach, Joe said: "We had kids here, there and everywhere, we're patched up and we even lost a player on the coach coming to the game."
Royle felt it was a case of 'the kids are alright' though, "I had to write a new teamsheet but I can't fault them. They were fantastic and we played some great football," he said.
"The first goal was a killer for us. The young kid [Aidan Collins] has made a mistake; he had no need to go back towards his own goal and it's cost us.
"At 2-0 they hadn't seen the ball and it was a shame but I've no complaints with any of them.
"At 2-0 we were cruising. They had a couple of skirmishes at the end where they'll say they could have won it.
"We'd have taken a point before the game, bearing in mind our problems. There's great promise and it's just a shame that we couldn't hang on."