Kevin O’Connor was pleased with the attacking intent shown by Brentford’s Development Squad as they lost an entertaining pre-season friendly 3-2 at Staines Town on Tuesday evening.
Jermaine Udumaga and Seika Jatta had twice levelled for Lee Carsley’s side but the match was settled with ten minutes to play as Luke Wanadio kept his composure to slot home after beating The Bees offside trap.
Speaking to Bees Player after the game Kevin said it was a good workout for the team and there were good signs ahead of the new season.
“I thought it was a very good game,” said Kevin. “It was probably the toughest game for the Under-21s so far and they did ok in patches. There was some good attacking play and we should have scored a few more goals than we did. That would be the positives I would take out of it.
“You don’t like to concede goals so we will look at them. They looked a little bit soft so we will try and address that with the defenders and the midfielders. You don’t want to concede goals so I wouldn’t say it was a concern but you don’t like conceding three.”
Kevin said the match against a physical Ryman Premier League side was a good test for the younger players in the squad and one that they can learn from.
“When I have been here the boys have been working very hard,” said Kevin. “On Monday they had a real tough session and tonight was just about fitness and having a proper game against a decent team.
“There were a few niggles off the ball which was good because you want them to get used to that and see how they react. The young subs who came on for us probably didn’t do as well as we would have liked and stopped the flow of the game a little for us. This is a learning curve and it was about giving them minutes on the pitch against a man’s team.”
This is the Kevin’s first pre-season on the coaching, not the training side, of football and he admits he is enjoying not having to take part in the usual diet of pre-season fitness.
The 33-year-old was part of the coaching staff on the club’s Training Camp to Portugal and he said it was great to spend time with and get to know the new players and members of staff.
“Not doing the pre-season fitness has been great but even in Portugal just watching the boys I was sweating,” said Kevin. “It has been a really good pre-season and I have been learning a lot of things with everything that goes on behind the training. In Portugal we were all together for ten days getting to know quite a few of the new members of staff. We heard a few initiation songs and it was good to get to know everyone and see what is going on.”
Bees Player subscribers can watch the full interview with Kevin below