Chris Martin believes Bristol City's young crop of players will become all the better players after being thrown into the deep end this season.
Manager Nigel Pearson has put the building blocks for the future in place by handing plenty of minutes to the club's crop of rising stars throughout a tumultuous season.
Alex Scott has been the obvious breakthrough player having made 35 Championship appearances including lengthy stints both in midfield and at right wing-back to help fill the void in the problem position.
Han-Noah Massengo has also played a key contribution making 25 starts while defender George Tanner enjoyed a run in the first-team following his summer move from Carlisle before picking up his hamstring injury.
Forwards Sam Bell, Tommy Conway and attacking midfielder Ayman Benarous have all had a taste of senior football and veteran striker Martin shared his sympathy that they had to come in during a difficult period but was eager to stress the importance of their learning curve.
He said: "There has been a lot of pressure in certain times, especially with a lot of the younger players who we've had to rely on.
"In an ideal situation, we wouldn't have to rely on them so often and be able to dip in and out with the younger players allowing them to grow gradually.
"Some of them have been thrown into the deep end and they've had to cope but that's only going to land us in good stead going forward in terms of building.
"This has been a real learning curve for a lot of these guys and hopefully that means they are all the better for those experiences and can really push on over the offseason and into next season."
Martin has also enjoyed a productive season, helped by making 40 Championship starts and two substitute appearances - having played in more minutes than any of his last five seasons.
Monday's opener against Sheffield United was his 10th of the season a figure that the 33-year-old feels he could have hit a lot sooner had he taken his chances.
"I would have liked to hit it a lot sooner but It's a decent achievement," he added. "If I look back over the course of my career, it's not every season that I've hit 10 so it's not something to be sniffed at.
"But I'll look back over course of the season and the opportunities that I've missed and think I should have had a few more but it's still half-decent but nothing overall I'm totally satisfied with so keep pushing and keep working."
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