B team head coach Neil MacFarlane praised the spirit and togetherness of his young group as they overcame Arsenal Under-21s to progress to the semi-finals of the Premier League Cup.
An Alex Gilbert penalty was the difference between the sides as the Bees came away with a 1-0 win against the Gunners.
Reacting to the win, MacFarlane explained: “I’m hugely proud of the players. Every man in that dressing room, whether they started or came on for the final few minutes, and when you look in in the dressing room and see the amount of support that they gave to each other tonight.
“Even those that weren’t selected. We have an unbelievable spirit about us and this is a performance which has really captured the last few months. We’ve been coming up against some unbelievable opposition. Two times when we were in Portugal and even previous to that in the last 16 of the Premier League Cup. To come into tonight against Arsenal and for us to raise our game to that level tonight- the boys should be hugely proud of themselves.”
Neil MacFarlane post-Arsenal U21
The young Bees defended fantastically and limited Arsenal to very few opportunities in front of goal. Daniel Oyegoke, Tristan Crama and Val Adedokun lined up in a back three with Kyreece Lisbie and Fin Stevens deployed as wing backs.
On the set up, MacFarlane said: “I thought they (the defence) were exceptional. We knew Arsenal had a lot of speed up top and we wanted to deal with the transitions. They were outstanding, the back three were exceptional. It’s difficult to single out anybody tonight because that was a real team performance, a real show of unity.”
In a match that Brentford can take some real positives from, MacFarlane says his side will maintain their mentality and hard work to keep improving and maintain their good run in the competition.
He explained: “It’s about never dropping under the line of complacency which we can’t ever let happen. They should take huge confidence, particularly from the first half where I thought we were relentless and made so many chances that we didn’t take. We didn’t let it affect us throughout the course of the 95 minutes. That’s been a real feature of this group because they’re absolutely relentless and they’re a joy to coach.
“It will be difficult (the next round), as has every game in the Premier League Cup. They’ve been really tight games but we feel we have a real spirit amongst us, we’ve got great organisation with and without the ball and if we can keep tidying up on these moments then we are a really good team. They boys can take huge confidence from tonight, we’ve got many other games throughout the course of the next two and a half months but we have something huge to look forward to.”