The Bees trailed at the break in Hampshire to a Bernard Mensah goal but a brace each from Reece Cole and Sergi Canos turned the game on its head before Florian Jozefzoon added extra gloss with a neat finish late on. After nine days of hard training at Jersey Road, Dean felt his squad were in good shape going into tonight’s game and put in an efficient display.

“It was a really pleasing exercise for us because it was a tough test with the heat,” said Dean, speaking to iFollow Brentford after the win. “We trained the lads firm yesterday and they had a session at two o’clock today. We have been working on pressing higher up the pitch and I was pleased with how they did today, even in the first-half. We weren’t as fluid on the ball in the first-half but we still made them kick the ball long 25 times which was really pleasing for us. We looked fit and as a collective I thought the players did really well tonight.”

Dean was able to give 45 minutes to eight members of the B Team tonight as a number of The Bees’ international players remained at Jersey Road for another session. With the likes of Jota, Romaine Sawyers, and Lasse Vibe missing, Dean was encouraged by what he saw from the younger members of the group.

“It’s been well documented that we had a few internationals and they did a tough conditioning session today with our new signing, Kamo Mokotjo,” revealed Dean. “Romaine Sawyers, Lasse Vibe, Andreas Bjelland, and Jota stayed at home to do a conditioning session at lunchtime today and that gave some of the B Team players a chance to shine today. They have done themselves no harm for sure and they have shown that they are ready and waiting.”

The Bees now head to France later on Saturday for their Training Camp in Divonne-Les-Bains on the border with Switzerland. Dean has targeted a few areas to work on while the group is away together but it also looking forward to getting to know more about the new faces who have joined over the summer so far.

“We are looking to get a bit of bonding from it, to get to know each other,” said Dean. “It will be a week of hard work which the players know. They had no doubt when they first came in how hard we would work them to get ready for this season which is really pleasing. We are working on a few things that we want to improve on. The goals against tally was a little too high last season so we want to go and win the ball back higher up the pitch and be organised defensively behind it. This week will give the coaching staff the time to work on that but it will also give the new signings time to get to know each other.”