Anthony Hayes felt Saturday’s Under-18 Professional Development League Two South victory over Nottingham Forest owed a lot to his side’s defensive resolve.
Against a big and direct Nottingham Forest side Brentford’s back four and goalkeeper Nik Tzanev repelled everything that Kevin McDonald’s threw at them.
The Bees took the lead just after the half-hour as Julius Fenn-Evans robbed Elvis Otim in the right-back area and squared for Kingsley Eshun to place home from eight yards.
Eshun grabbed his, and The Bees, second midway through the second-half as he backheeled home from close range after a goalmouth scramble.
Speaking to Bees Player Anthony laid much of the praise for his side’s victory with his defence as they secured a second clean sheet in four matches.
The Brentford Youth Team manager felt there was room for improvement with his side’s attacking play but was pleased overall with the win.
“I am very pleased with the result,” said Anthony.
“It was a difficult afternoon for the boys in terms of how Nottingham Forest played and how we had to deal with it.
“I am really pleased with the back four and the goalkeeper.
“I am happy with the way the team competed and battled and I am happy to get another win.
“A lot of crosses came into the box and we have to look at how we can stop those at source.
“However any balls that came into the box I thought we were the first contact.
“We defended the back post really well and Nik commanded his area.
“In general I am so pleased with the commitment, the desire to defend and the attitude that the boys showed for the 90 minutes.
“We want to do a lot better in terms of our in possession play going forwards but the defensive side of the game is something that the players have to be good at.
“The desire that they showed was first class and I am really pleased with the clean sheet for the back four, but especially for Nik as I thought his performance was very good today.”
With Bradley Clayton involved with the Under-21s on Monday against Birmingham City there was a Youth-Team debut for 15-year-old Julius Fenn-Evans alongside fellow Under-16 Kingsley Eshun.
The duo are the latest in a number of Under-16s to have stepped up to the Youth Team and performed well so far this campaign.
Anthony thinks it is great for the Academy that Under-16s can step and perform so well in the Youth Team.
With the pair performing so well on Saturday Anthony said there is no guarantee that older players will get their places back once they are available again.
“I have to commend Julius Fenn-Evans as I thought that technically he was our best player,” said Anthony.
“For Kingsley Eshun to score twice this week I am very pleased for him.
“The second goal was terrific improvisation.
“I am very pleased for the two of them and it just shows the quality that we have coming through the Under 16s and below that.
“It is terrific when our Under 16s come in and play with such confidence.
“It is what we want with our best Under-18s going up to play with our Under-21s and our best Under-16s coming up to play with the Under-18s.
“We want to be in a competitive environment but we need our best Under-18s to go up and compete at Under-21 level.
“Our Under-16s continue to come up, with Julius and Kingsley today, Danny Parish came on and Joshua Bohui and George Harmes have played with us before, and have all done well.
“That just goes to show the talent we have underneath in the Academy and it poses me and the rest of the staff some problems.”
Saturday’s win over Nottingham Forest keeps The Bees top of the league with 17 points from nine games.
Next up on Saturday is a trip to Cardiff City who sat second in the league ahead of last weekend’s fixture.
Anthony said that while the players do look at the league table it is not something that the staff are focussed on.
Ahead of next week’s game Anthony is expecting a tough match but is hopeful his side can get a positive result.
“The players look at the league table and it means something to them,” said Anthony.
“As staff our focus is developing our players to move into the Under-21s and to get the professional contracts.
“Next week it will be a difficult challenge for the players and a different challenge than was posed today.
“The players will look forward to it.
“Hopefully we can get another good week’s training in and go again to compete with Cardiff next week.”