Jon De Souza felt the way his side played in both boxes gave them no chance of getting a positive result in their Under-18 Professional Development League Two South match against Colchester United on Saturday morning.
The Bees led the table going into the weekend but put in a poor performance against bottom-placed United.
Brentford conceded three goals in a nine-minute second-half spell as the hosts secured only their second home win of the season.
Speaking to Bees Player after the match Jon said his side’s defending was nowhere near good enough but what annoyed him more was that there didn’t appear to be a desire to remedy the mistakes.
“I was disappointed as we didn’t defend well enough and we didn’t take enough chances,” said Jon.
“Ultimately when you do that you don’t win games of football.
“If you do well at one end you might give yourself a chance of winning.
“If you defend well but don’t take your chances then you might have a chance and visa versa.
“We scored three goals which is a positive but we should have five or six goals.
“We conceded five and we could have conceded a couple more which is not good enough.
“I don’t think we defended well from minute one to minute 90.
“It was a makeshift back four with Tom Field playing at centre-back and Dan Webster hasn’t played for three or four months.
“I will grant the boys that but at the end of the days defenders need to defend.
“The biggest thing for me was that the boys almost accepted their bad shape and bad defending rather than having a go.
“It was about organisation and a desire to defend which led to that.”
Brentford led twice in the match through Zain Westbrooke and Makhosini Khanye but both times they were pegged back within a matter of minutes.
Jon felt at times his side played some good football in the build-up but were let down in the final third.
The Youth Team manager added that it was very frustrating to get ahead only to concede so quickly and that is something that must be addressed going forward.
“We were a final ball, a final bit of technique, a final bit of quality and a finish away from more goals,” said Jon.
“At times in the first-half our play in and around the final third was quite good.
“It was really disappointing to concede straight after we scored.
“To manage the game you need to take the lead and establish that lead.
“Game management is part of the learning environment and hopefully we can do that as the season progresses.”
Jon’s side for Saturday’s encounter was much changed with a number of senior players unavailable.
Gradi Milenge and Courtney Senior have joined Farnborough Town and Wycombe Wanderers on loan while James Ferry, Audrius Laucys, Seth Owens and Kyjuon Marsh-Brown were all involved in Monday’s Development Squad fixture at Bristol City.
To replace the missing players Under-16 Luke Dunn came in for his first start for the Youth Team while Dan Webster and Romayn Pennant both started for the first time this campaign.
Jon is pleased that, by pushing some of the more senior members of the Youth Team onto bigger challenges, other players have been given a chance to impress, even if it means results, in the short-term, may suffer.
“It is good to get Gradi Milenge and Courtney Senior out on loan,” said Jon.
“Courtney has got a Football League club which is terrific for him and Gradi has gone to the Conference South.
“That will be good for their development and game management.
“Gradi and Courtney have gone out on loan and Kyjuon Marsh-Brown, Seth Owens, Audrius Laucys and James Ferry were all with the Under-21s and Seika Jatta was unavailable for today.
“Quite a few of our regular starters weren’t available so that gives some of the other boys the chance to play and to develop.
“The other boys have got to step up and show that they can take the places of the boys who have moved on.
“That is how football works and ideally every time a manager gets rid of a player by selling them or releasing them we should have players who can replace them.
“That should be the same for us that every time someone gets moved up to the Under-21s from the Under-18s we should have a next batch coming through.”
Next up for the Youth Team is a tough assignment when they travel east again to face play-off hopefuls Ipswich Town on Saturday.
The Bees produced a fine performance in the home game to win 2-1 earlier in the season and Jon is hopeful for a reaction from the defeat to Colchester United.
“We go to Ipswich Town next week and we try to address what went wrong,” said Jon.
“Hopefully we will perform how we did in the first game again next week.
“It will be a game where people have to dominate the game and dominate the football which we will try to do.”
Bees Player subscribers can listen to the full interview here