B team head coach Neil MacFarlane felt his side more than matched their opponents on Tuesday afternoon despite coming out on the wrong end of the result against a Queens Park Rangers XI at Loftus Road.

In a game which was split into three 30-minute periods, the hosts fielded a strong side with lots of first team experience against the young Bees, who had three members of the Brentford first team involved as Shandon Baptiste and Aaron Hickey continued their return from their injuries whilst defender Fin Stevens also built important minutes.

A 3-1 defeat to our West London neighbours doesn’t quite tell the story of the game in terms of how the Bees performed as they created a large number of chances as they fought back from 1-0 down to go level at 1-1 through another Michael Olakigbe goal. QPR then went back in front with a free-kick before a very late goal on the full-time whistle.

Reflecting on the test for his young side, MacFarlane said: “To come here and get such a level of game is fantastic. We’re playing against their first team players, which is what we want. As has been the case over the recent period of time we’ve really built that fixture programme to a really high level. I think you can see that in our team with the way we’re going about our business and the way we’re playing with confidence that’s ripping through the team.

“If we look at the game on reflection, we didn’t start fast in terms of our build-up play and we got done a couple of times with our looseness and they capitalised on an error and got the opening goal but I was really satisfied with our response because I felt it didn’t flummox us in the game and we kept going. We played some terrific football through the first two periods and had countless chances throughout the game to get back level, and when we were level, we had countless opportunities to go on and win the game.

"Our overall reflection in defence is that we gave up very little, but we gave away three soft goals. We gave away in our build-up play, which I’ll always take a level of responsibility for trying to play, but you have to make the right decisions at the right times. The second one is a free-kick and the third was very late in the game from a pass back and they got in. Other than that, our organisation was outstanding, and we didn’t give up much against high level quality players who are playing in the Championship week in, week out. That’s another step forward, even though it’s disappointing to lose game, it’s another step forward in the development of this group who are really performing well at the moment.”

With the match presenting itself as an opportunity for some first team players to gain minutes, MacFarlane said the trio from Thomas Frank’s squad acquitted themselves brilliantly over the course of the game.

He continued: “It’s really encouraging because it’s our fifth game in 15 days and this group keep going to the well at the moment and they’re able to handle Championship players, and that’s what we want and we want to keep pushing them because we’re a Premier League football club and we want to keep driving our standards to those levels. They were added to by Aaron Hickey, Fin Stevens and Shandon Baptiste coming down who I thought were absolutely magnificent. Their attitude, and there’s something in our culture that rips through the club and for them to come down here and apply themselves and play well; it’s good minutes under their belts for them and our group.”