BURNLEY Under-23s boss Michael Duff has called on his side to reproduce their performance against Preston in the Lancashire Senior Cup every week.

Duff said his side had 'set the benchmark' for the season after they down to a valiant defeat against an experience North End side at their Springfield training ground.

Every player on the Preston side had played first-team football, while the Clarets fielded a young side, but despite the gulf in experience Preston only ran out 3-2 winners, and Duff was delighted with the performance of his side.

"They have set the benchmark now. That’s what we expect every game. That’s the acid test," he said.

"They had a lot of game knowledge in their team and at times we were a bit naive at certain things.

"But that’s part of their development. It’s not just all about rolling the ball about in Academy football, which can be false.

"That was a proper game of football and they were quite complimentary about our lads afterwards, which is good."

Preston's side boasted almost 2,500 first-team appearances, while most of Burnley's starting XI were under 19 and didn't have a senior Clarets appearance to their name.

Jamie Thomas and Khius Metz scored for Burnley, while Tinashe Chakwana hit a post in the second half as the visitors looked to take the tie to penalties.

Duff added: "They were very strong really and probably stronger than we thought.

"They have used that as an opportunity to maybe play a couple of lads coming back from injury and some of the lads who are in and around the first team.

"If you add up their league appearances it would be a lot, so it was a good test for our lads and I thought we were unlucky.

"We weathered the storm at the start of the second half and grew into the game towards the end.

"All we can ask of our lads is to leave everything out on the pitch and they did that.

"At 3-2 we’ve hit the post and had a stonewall penalty turned down, so I can’t ask for any more."