SOUTHEND United’s under-23 coach Craig Fagan felt Richard Taylor showed great courage on his League debut.

Taylor made a costly error in the Shrimpers’ 4-0 defeat to Oxford United on Saturday.

But Fagan feels Taylor will learn from the experience.

“It’s tremendous for Richard to get his debut and I’m sure he was happy about that,” said Fagan.

“It hasn’t gone the way he would have liked, obviously the first couple of minutes, but what I would say is he showed great courage to get on the ball and still try and do the right things.

“With all the under-23 lads they will make mistakes, that’s the difference with young players. But it’s about having that patience to learn and develop, and I’m sure he will.

“They’re all going to make mistakes but he will definitely kick on again after that and learn from what happened.”