EXETER City finished their Under-21 Premier League Cup group campaign with a 2-2 draw at home to Bristol City, but coach Dan Green said his players must do more if they want to be first team regulars.

Jay Bird opened the scoring for City inside the first two minutes and their tasked was boosted further when Robins defender Raph Araoye was sent off for bringing down Bird with just nine minutes on the clock.

Two goals in six minutes straight after that sending off then had Bristol 2-1 up, but Exeter could not make the extra man – or their dominance – tell with Liam Oakes rescuing a point with a superb equaliser just past the hour mark.

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“I’ll probably finish the competition as we started it against Bromley where I feel like we could have played better,” Green said. “The ultimate aim of this competition is to help produce players for our first team and that’s ultimately the marker that we use to judge the performances and I think, on that tonight, a lot of the players would need to perform better for their future careers and for the levels we know they are capable of.

“I think it can be a great learning tool tonight and hopefully stand us in good stead for the next round. We were too slow in possession, we gave away two really poor goals but with young players, you get those type of ups and downs and performances. Fortunately, there is another game in this competition coming around and if we want even more after that, we are going to have to be better than what we were tonight in that knockout game.”

City finished top of the group from runners-up Bromley, which means they progress to the knock-out stages where they await their fate. But while the competition is the ideal bridge between youth team football and the first team for Exeter’s younger players, it has also allowed them to use the competition to give minutes to players returning from injury, or who need game time.

Bird certainly benefited and so too did Reece Cole and Sonny Cox, who both got 45 minutes under their belts as they return to full fitness following injury, while Oakes’ continued development has seen him earn the praise of coach Green.

“Credit to Oaksy, he has got a really nice consistency about his game and his personality and I think he has really kicked on in the six games we have had in this group stage,” he said. “It’s great for him to finish the group off with such a good goal.

“This competition has also been a real tool for us to help get players ready for the first team whether that’s physically or with games for the younger players, but Reece, Sonny and Jay will be better off physically for the minutes they have managed to get through,” Green said. “Now, it’s about them recovering and having a real good week of training as we go into the Nottingham Forest game.”