Bristol Rovers coach Paul Trollope believes the experience gained by the club's young players this season will stand them in good stead.Rovers' return to the third tier after a six-year absence yielded a bottom-half finish, although there are high hopes the team can achieve more next time around.

A key part of that will be the knowledge gained by players such as Byron Anthony, Joe Jacobson and Chris Lines, who have all made at least 20 appearances this season and who are all under the age of 23.

Trollope hopes those players can use this year as a valuable learning curve in their football education.

"Whatever happens in the summer, we are going to be a better Bristol Rovers next year for having a year in the division," Trollope told the Western Daily Press. "We've got a number of young players - Joe Jacobson, Chris Lines, Sean Rigg and Byron Anthony - who will have benefited from this year.

"These players sometimes need the time and experience to be able to do that. They've had that over the last few months and they will come back a year older, more experienced and hopefully better for that."

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