Jon Dahl Tomasson: Blackburn Rovers sees positives in Nottingham Forest cup loss

Blackburn's players felt the Premier League quality of Nottingham Forest in Wednesday's cup tie

Blackburn Rovers' younger talent will benefit from the experience of facing Premier League sides like Nottingham Forest, says boss Jon Dahl Tomasson.

Rovers bowed out of the Carabao Cup after a 4-1 loss to a Forest side in which seven internationals started.

By contrast, Rovers named centre-back Ashley Phillips, 17, and midfielders Adam Wharton, 18, and Jake Garrett, 19.

"They will learn from playing a Premier League club," former Denmark striker Tomasson told BBC Radio Lancashire.

"How quickly you should make a decision, how focused and concentrated you need to be for more than 90 minutes and how quick the play is coming and the intensity.

"So it's been a good journey for those players and they will learn from that.

"We lost a game against a very good side, so it's difficult to find a positive but we are always looking at development as well."

Rovers are currently third in the Championship table after 13 victories and 10 defeats - the same number of wins as leaders and rivals Burnley, who they nevertheless trail by eight points.

With a promotion push their main focus, Tomasson made 11 changes against Forest and felt the game was also a useful experience for those without top-flight experience to gauge the standard required.

"When you play against very good players, sometimes you head can become overloaded in relation to what you're used to," he added.

"That's what you need to cope with, we saw when we were away at West Ham some of the players making quicker decisions and being able to cope a little bit better with the game.

"Just playing against a Premier League club, which is somewhere hopefully where we will be over time in the future, it's good for the young boys to try it and understand what they need to be better - hard work."