Jon De Souza praised the character of his players after they put aside being pegged back twice to secure a vital 3-2 victory away at Charlton Athletic in the Under-18 Professional Development League Two South.
Jeremiah Kamanzi put Brentford ahead inside 20 seconds but George Lapslie levelled matters less than three minutes later.
The Bees re-took the lead with a quarter of an hour remaining only for Brandan Hanlan to again level things for the hosts.
The league leaders did eventually wrap up the three points through Bradley Clayton’s ninth goal of the season with a minute of the 90 remaining.
Speaking to Bees Player after the match Jon De Souza said he was pleased with the three points in what he thought was a fairly even game.
The Youth Team manager reserved praise for his side’s character and desire to fight for the three points as Jon revealed after the match a number of his side had been struggling with illness leading up to the match.
“We are happy with the win,” said Jon.
“We spoke to the boys about trying to provide them with different challenges.
“We had the FA Youth Cup and the trip to America but today we challenged them to go and win the game today.
“If we had to try and change things slightly we would change them.
“The players took that on board well and we ended up winning, winning well and trying to develop our style as well.
“We probably shaded it slightly but I wouldn’t say it was a deserved win.
“I thought it was a very close game and it could have gone either way.
“The most pleasing thing today was the fact they won the game twice in the last 15 minutes.
“When you score so early in the game and concede straight away you have to bounce back quickly to get back into the game.
“I think the boys did that and I was really pleased with the boys’ character to then go 2-1 up and 3-2 up.
“We had quite a few boys there who were struggling with illness and injuries but I felt they got through the game well.”
The game burst into life from the kick-off as Kamanzi scored his first goal of the season after 18 seconds only for Lapslie to level 150 seconds later.
Clayton had a goal wrongly disallowed and Kamanzi, Clayton and Zain Westbrooke all could have scored in a breathless opening 10 minutes.
After that the game settled into a pattern of Brentford dominating possession and pressing high with Charlton looking to play on the break.
Jon felt it was a fairly even first-half but admitted his side were indebted to goalkeeper Nik Tzanev for some crucial contributions in the second-half.
“It was a frantic first ten minutes which I think they were probably on top and I thought they were on top in the first five minutes of the second-half,” said Jon.
“Overall I thought the first-half was very even and there were very few chances.
“I think we pressed quite well and with good intent but we needed to be better at picking up second balls.
“I was really pleased with Nik Tzanev second-half.
“I think he picked out two or three things that stopped us from losing the game.
“I felt the first time we played Charlton we had three or four really good individual performances.
“You wouldn’t have been able to argue that they weren’t the best players on the pitch.
“Today it was more of a team effort.
“There were some good performances but nobody from either team really stood out.”
The result moved Brentford 10 points clear of Charlton Athletic but The Addicks do have three games in hand on The Bees.
With the top two sides making the end of season play-offs the win means Jon’s side are at least seven points clear of third place.
The message from Jon and the coaching staff this season has been that the focus is on development and not on results and the Youth Team manager admitted that focus won’t change despite points becoming more crucial towards the end of the season.
“I don’t think the focus towards results changes as the weeks go on,” said Jon.
“We want the boys to learn how to win games and to have the pressure of fighting for a play-off place.
“We won’t ever use looking to win as a way to effect the boys but rather as a tool to improve the boys.”
Next up for the Youth Team is a home game against a Swansea City side who beat The Bees 4-1 in South Wales back in December.
For Jon Swansea are the best team that The Bees have played in the league so far this season and he is looking forward to again testing his side against The Swans.
On the back of three straight wins Jon’s team go into the game full of confidence and the Youth Team manager is looking forward to getting in on Monday to start preparing for next Saturday’s test.
“For me Swansea City have been the best team in the league so I am looking forward to that game,” said Jon.
“They beat us quite comfortably at their place.
“The boys go into the game full of confidence.
“It will be another hard week in training and hopefully we can continue what we have been doing.”