Brentford B Head Coach Neil MacFarlane believes his side can learn a great deal from their 3-1 defeat to Como 1907 in Italy on Tuesday.

The young Bees were beaten by the Serie B side who took a 2-0 lead into the break before furthering their advantage just after half-time. Brentford had moments, though, and created a great deal going forwards in the second half which also saw Aaron Pressley score his first goal since returning from long-term injury.

Reflecting on the match in Italy, MacFarlane said: “I think it was a fantastic test for our young players to come here and play Como’s first team who are a strong Serie B side. It’s the sort of test that we want and exactly the difference in our fixture programme that we want to create. We played the Premier League Cup tie against Peterborough which was a fantastic game. We came out here a few days later and had another outstanding game against men and that’s what we want.

“To be fair, I don’t think we started the game particularly great, and the first 10 minutes was too frantic. We really built into the game, and we were having our best spell when we then conceded the penalty to fall behind. We then lost a poor goal to go 2-0 down following a cross, can we stop that? Yes. We can certainly defend it better on the edge of the 18-yard box and not let a header come in from that angle. I liked our response and we’ve not been behind too many times, we’ve not been beaten since August, so these are good experiences.

“We had a situation where we were 2-0 down midway through the half but we kept going and, though we didn’t create too much in the first half, I thought our subs went on to make an impact in the second half and we created numerous chances to get ourselves back in the game. On the back end of it we lost another to go 3-0 down but the overriding factor was they kept going and they got back into the game and made it 3-1, and through Tony (Yogane) and Aaron we could have had more.”

The B Team Head Coach had to shuffle his team defensively with Tristan Crama and Nico Jones missing the fixture as the side went to a back four with youngster Byron Wilson filling in at central defence alongside Edon Pruti.

On the changes, MacFarlane said: “From open play, where we changed system and were also dealt with Tristan and Nico being unable to play, I thought Byron came in and did a good job. We can always do better and look to improve but that’s the type of group we’ve got, if you ask them to play positions they don’t normally, they will go and do a good job for you.”

On Pressley’s first goal for the B Team since returning from injury, MacFarlane added that he’s delighted to see the striker making positive steps now he’s back fit.

“I’m delighted for him,” said MacFarlane. “It’s great to see him back, he got even more minutes today and now it’s about a continuous build-up for him over the next few weeks and months ahead to get him back to where he was. He’ll be pleased to get the goal.”