Brentford B Head Coach Neil MacFarlane felt his side deserved much more from their Premier League Cup match with Blackburn Rovers Under-21s on Saturday afternoon at the Laithwaite Community Stadium.

The young Bees went ahead early on through Ryan Trevitt but Ben Fyles grabbed two goals in quick succession to give Rovers all three points. Brentford had plenty of chances but were unable to draw level in the game but MacFarlane says his side carried out everything he and his staff asked of them.

“I’m disappointed for the group,” explained the B Team Head Coach. “Without a shadow of a doubt that is our best performance of the season. We’ve been on an unbelievable run of form until the other day. We haven’t displayed that level of quality over the course of 90 minutes like that before which makes me disappointed for the group (to not get something from the game.) To a man we played with high level quality and worked so hard for each other, but we didn’t catch the breaks in the second half to go back level which I felt we deserved overall.”

The Bees started fast and deservedly went in front as Trevitt kept up his wonderful run of form as he notched his eight goal of the season.

MacFarlane continued: “We started so well. We came out the blocks full of confidence, with real energy and we got a terrific goal. That summed up the day in terms of Val’s (Adedokun) composure to square it for Trev and, as he has been doing all season, another sensational finish. As is football, goals change games, and we lost one when we were trying to build up and lost another shortly after. When we were at Blackburn in the opening game of this competition, I didn’t think we deserved to be leading 2-1 at half-time, and I certainly think we didn’t deserve to be behind 2-1 at half-time this time.

“I asked them to go and replicate it (the performance) and more in the second half which is difficult for any group of players to do. Blackburn would maybe change their shape or pressed higher than they were. We kept doing the right things, we introduced Aaron (Pressley) who was a real threat, but we didn’t go long to him, and we kept mixing up our game.”

Reacting to the goals conceded which came on the counter-attack as Blackburn were clinical, MacFarlane says he wants his side to play on the front foot and look to go and attack teams which means sometimes they could be caught out.

Explaining the goals for Blackburn, he said: “When you ask the players to build up that’s my responsibility and that’s what I ask of them. Of course, the decision making comes into it but I will always take responsibility when we ask them to play. We lost a goal from one of their main threats in the first half in terms of when we gave them the ball back they were quick on the transitions and playing the ball forward. They caused us some problems with that in the first half. It’s the attacking mindset of the group. We go for it, we have done all season and sometimes you get done with it. We adjusted in the second half and it never really caused us any problems in that respect. We kept going and this group is giving us their max every day.”