The young Bees, who beat Albacete Under-19s 4-0 earlier in the week, then came up against a FC Cartagena side that featured a host of first team names and experienced players.

An entertaining match saw Brentford B narrowly beaten 3-2, but the Brentford B Head Coach believes the side can take a number of positives form the match and the trip overall.

He explained: “There are huge positives, I said to the group in the dressing room that I’m immensely proud of them, as all of the staff are for the way they’ve gone about their business throughout the whole tour. We played a game on Tuesday night and had to go ahead with the same group, a very small group but a very tight group, and they’ve given everything to the club on tour and that’s all we can ask for.

“They’re (FC Cartagena) top of Segunda B so it’s a tough test, but that’s what we want. We want to push them again and they certainly were pushed today. We kept going to the end, the equaliser was just elusive, but I’ve got no complaints about the way that we went about it. There are loads of things to continue to improve on as there always is with this group, but there are some huge positives.”

Having been on a positive run of form and with goals free flowing in recent weeks, the young Bees had to go through periods, particularly in the first half, without a great deal of possession, but Neil believes that gave the side the opportunity to continue their defensive organisation.

“We’re really getting to grips with our organisation, we were probably just a little bit off the press at times in the first half, but again, I’ll link that back to having to play 48 hours earlier,” said Neil. “We nullified them, in particular in the first half apart from those two moments where they scored. In possession, we were really good in spells and other times we just needed to be a little bit tighter.

“Most of their goals were the same, a cutback into our area and some good finishes from them but it’s something we’re looking to work on, and we’ll continue to strive to keep clean sheets like we did the other night. Throughout the 90 minutes the team kept fighting and that’s the most important thing.”

Having spent five days in La Manga to play two matches and train, Neil believes the continued exposure to new experiences will help this team continue to develop which will hold them in good stead as they look to build their careers.

Discussing the trip, Neil explained: “I think it’s been first class; we’ve enjoyed everything. The facility has been fantastic, and we wanted to use this trip properly and there can be no complaints about that.

“It’s a different type of experience, we saw it the with the referee who was bit card happy at one point, and you have to deal with the European aspect of it, but we got everything that we wanted from the 90 minutes other than getting something from the game.”