B Team Head Coach Neil MacFarlane was left pleased with the intense test for his young players against Jong PSV on Wednesday as they came away from the match in Holland with a 1-1 draw.

The young Bees are on a five-day trip to Holland where they first played PSV before their second match on Saturday against Jong AZ Alkmaar. The first match saw Brentford adapt as the hosts had large spells of possession throughout. Ryan Trevitt put the team ahead late in the first half before a strike on 83 minutes from the home side meant the match finished level.

Reflecting on the game, MacFarlane said: “It was a game where we were fantastically organised and we had to be because PSV are a really good side, which we knew going into the game. In the opening 25 minutes or so they dominated possession but from our 4-3-3 shape I thought we were really good, they didn’t cause us too many problems other than a couple of shots from long range which Ben (Winterbottom) dealt with. We grew into the game and for the final 15 minutes of the first half we got much better in possession and we got higher up the park. We got a terrific goal, Tony (Yogane) did well as he set it for Charlie (Farr.) It was a terrific pass from Charlie and the timing of the run was, again looking at how he’s (Ryan Trevitt) been all season, it was another magnificent finish to take us 1-0 up.”

We said at half-time we have to start faster and we certainly did. In the opening 15 minutes of the second half they didn’t get out and we were good. We had a couple of little sniffs at goal and we could have had a penalty. We got sloppy in certain moments defensively. We let them back into the game and they smelt that and kept going. Full credit to both teams, I thought the attitude and application to the game was outstanding. To be fair, overall, a draw is a fair result but we’re disappointed to lose the late goal because we put so much into it and showed some flashes of really good play again.”

Discussing PSV as an opponent, Neil says they have now had two very good games against the Dutch side, who visited the UK towards the end of the 2021/22 season where they beat Brentford B 2-0 at Plough Lane.

He continued: “It was a really intense test. They have some terrific young players and we lost to them in the final game of last season at Wimbledon’s stadium. We came here today and we’ve seen more progression in the team. We can stand up against this level of opposition, who play in a league (Eerste Divisie) over here. These types of games are massive for our young players and the more we can have them the better. It’s been an outstanding fixture programme recently and long may that continue towards Christmas and into the new year.”

Next up for the young Bees is that test against AZ on Saturday in a 10am kick-off local time. In what is a busy period moving towards Christmas for the B Team, MacFarlane says the side will have full focus on the test against AZ this weekend.

He explained: “It’s an amazing tour and we have had one terrific game of football. We will go away now and prepare before another really tough game against AZ Alkmaar. We want to continuously test the boys and keep striving for those performance levels.”