John Mulvihill was left immensely proud of his side’s performance in the Guinness PRO14 defeat to Conference B leaders, Edinburgh, on Friday.
Cardiff Blues were forced to make four late changes at the Scottish capital, with Hallam Amos, Shane Lewis-Hughes, Lloyd Williams and Ben Thomas ruled out at the 11th hour.
With a number of other senior players sidelined, Mulvihill called upon youngsters such as Max Llewellyn, making his first Guinness PRO14 start, and Ioan Davies, who came from the bench to make his Championship debut.
Despite the late changes, the Blues put in a spirited performance, going toe-to-toe with their table topping hosts, but were edged out thanks to the boot of Simon Hickey.
The head coach was disappointed the effort did not result in a losing bonus point at the least, but says his side can hold their heads high after their performance.
“We're really disappointed not to take something back to Cardiff with us because I think we played well enough to get something out of that game.
“We just couldn’t finish it off, really. The second half was a little bit different from the first but we can incredibly proud of our boys tonight.
“We lost three in the build up to the game and also lost our captain five minutes before kick off, which meant we had to make four changes within 24 hours.
“Players were flown in this morning in order to arrive at Edinburgh by lunch time and be here for the game.
“To get that close, with an opportunity to win the game late, was a fantastic performance by our boys. I have to take that.
“We’ve got a good bunch of kids coming through, and to play in a great stadium like this against good opposition will put them in good stead going forward.
“We had opportunity right down to the end to get something out of it but just made little, basic errors that stopped our momentum in the game.
“But I can’t fault our endeavour tonight and the attitude and commitment that the boys showed.”
The Blues will now head into an interval, with their next PRO14 clash against Zebre set to be held on March 21 at Cardiff Arms Park.
With his side needing to make up for lost ground in Conference B, the Australian is confident they can secure crucial results in the run-in if they replicate that performance during the business-end of the season.
Mulvihill added: “I’m just disappointed for them that they didn’t take a point back to Cardiff but we can take a lot of confidence from that performance with five home games and a few big away ones to come.
“If we play like that in those games, then we will win a lot of them.
“We need to make sure that we have a good training week every week and it’s an example tonight, where we came here with a specific game plan and we nearly came away with it.
“We’ll get back to the drawing board, hopefully have a fit group of players to choose from and get started again.
“There’s so many positives that came out of tonight and we blooded a few more young boys as well.
“You look at Ben Thomas, who pulled out in the captain’s run. He only made his debut in the top team this year, and he’s gone on to play 11 games for us this season.
“He’s done well, but Max Llewellyn came in and played well tonight as well, as did Ioan Davies.
“We’ve got good boys coming through, and they’re getting the exposure, and that’s what we’ll need to build some strength in depth at the club.
“Fishy did really well tonight as well. I think he was running on an empty tank towards the end but he got himself through and he’s a good player for us.
“There were a few little errors early on but he can be very proud of his performance tonight.”