Jan Holldack thinks Brentford’s youngsters are on the right track, as long as they learn from their mistakes, despite extending their run without a win to ten matches. The German defender was speaking after conceding a penalty in The Bees 3-1 U21 Professional Development League Two South defeat to Bolton Wanderers on Monday at Jersey Road. Jamie Thomas netted from the spot after Jan had brought down Chris Cvetko before further goals from Enock Likoy-Elumba and Alex Samizadeh wrapped up the points for Wanderers, despite a Callum Spooner own-goal for The Bees.

Speaking to Bees Player after the defeat Jan said: “We will learn from it today. I will learn from giving the penalty away and, even though the second goal was a foul, it wasn’t given so I will learn to head the ball away. Sometimes you need to make mistakes to learn from it and get better. There is a bit of frustration but if you look back after the game at what you did well and what you can do better then you will be alright.”

Flemming Pedersen’s side dominated for much of the match but couldn’t find a way past a Bolton side content to soak up pressure and play on the counter-attack. Jan felt that The Bees played all the football in the match but left themselves exposed to the counter-attack on occasions and that cost them dear.

“I thought we were the better team,” said Jan. “We tried to play football while Bolton Wanderers tried to defend and use long balls. We controlled the game and it was only counter-attacks and our mistakes that allowed them to beat us. We lost the ball near to their goal and then we got counter-attack after counter-attack. They had ten one vs one situations on the counter-attack and we made a mistake and then they got a goal.”

Jan is the Development Squad’s top scorer this season with 11 goals but has been playing in the centre of defence for most of the last month. The German Youth International is not unused to fulfilling a more defensive role having represented club and country in that position while in Germany. Jan feels the switch could help him to get nearer to The Bees first team while also adding an extra dimension to the team’s play.

“I played most of my last four years at Cologne as a centre-back and I played a lot of friendly games for Germany at centre-back,” said Jan. “Here I have scored a lot of goals but there wasn’t really an opportunity for me in the first-team. There were a lot of things that I need to improve to play in the first-team as a midfielder. Playing at centre-back gives me a better chance of playing in the first-team. The way that our first team wants to play with short passing from the back is good for me and means that it could an opportunity for me to get into the first team quicker than in the midfield.”