Flemming Pedersen described yesterday’s loss to Bolton Wanderers as a stupid defeat after The Trotters scored three counter-attack goals to leave Jersey Road with the points. Jamie Thomas converted from the spot after Jan Holldack’s foul on Chris Cvetko but The Bees were soon level as Callum Spooner turned Josh Clarke’s low cross into his own net. Enock Likoy-Elumba chased down a long ball and beat Chris Mepham to make it 2-1 before substitute Alex Samizadeh made the game safe midway through the second-half.
Speaking to Bees Player after the defeat Flemming said: “It was a stupid loss. We had a lot of the ball and had good positions in our build-up. We forced Bolton back but to play higher up the pitch like we want to do we need to have an attacking balance and not give away counter-attacks and stupid goals. Today we gave away two stupid goals. When you have problems creating chances in and around the penalty like we had today then you will get in trouble. Today there was a lack of consequence in dealing with certain situations but it was a great learning curve for the players. What we need to see in the future is that the players take the learning on board and not make the same mistakes again.”
The Bees dominated possession against a Bolton side content to play deep and constrict space with a narrow diamond in midfield. While Flemming accepted that Wanderers style negated The Bees attempts to win the game, he felt that their approach will make it very difficult for them to produce players for the first-team in the future.
“There was a lack of individual quality in taking on an opponent one-on-one,” said Flemming. “We played around them a lot and tried to get through around the sides but it wasn’t good enough. You have to give credit to Bolton because they succeeded in playing deep and defending. However if we are thinking about developing players then what Bolton and other teams do will never be enough to develop players. Hopefully in the long term we can bring more players through than other clubs. We are here to compete and we are here to win but the priority is always to bring players through. Everyone will forget this game in two days so the game is just a part of our development.”
Monday’s defeat means that it is now ten games without a win for the Development Squad since the turn of the year. Looking ahead to the coming weeks Flemming feels that his side need to play quicker if they want to turn around this poor run of form and doing that will also help to get his players closer to first-team contention.
“Right now we have a good mental challenge in that we can’t get frustrated because we aren’t winning,” said Flemming. “We have to find extra motivation to play in the final fourth of the pitch and be even better there. The players have to recognise spaces and movements quicker. After the game I was saying that we can’t control the standard of the pitches or of the referees but we can control our body positions, our scanning and our game awareness. We need to play much faster.”