B team head coach Neil MacFarlane felt his team can still take positives from their performance despite being beaten 3-2 by Huddersfield Town B on Saturday afternoon.
The young Bees were beaten by two late goals from Town in a match where the West London side dominated for large parts but were unable to make the most of the opportunities afforded to them.
Reflecting on the result, MacFarlane explained: “There were lots of positives from today. We’ve been in a terrific vein of form in terms of performances and results, and we came here today for our fourth game in 11 days and put in a terrific performance, especially in the first 30 minutes where I thought some of our football was outstanding with some brilliant patterns of play. We were outstanding without the ball, and we had total control of the game with a number of opportunities one-v-one (with the goalkeeper) to go ahead.
MacFarlane post-Huddersfield
“In the last 15 minutes or so we started to make poor choices with the ball and the game became more even. I thought we started the second half well again before we fell behind, but as has been the case in recent months, the response from the group was outstanding to come back the way we did and score two goals- some real high-quality goals were brilliant from the group. I thought for the first 65 minutes we had real control in the game in a really positive performance, but I didn’t think that was the case in the last 20 minutes."
The young Bees came up against a Town side which featured the likes of Josh Koroma and Kyle Hudlin among others from their first team group, and MacFarlane says it was a brilliant test for his group and he was pleased with how his side dealt with their opponents for large parts.
He continued: “They had four of five players from their first team and one that came off the bench and it’s a terrific game for us. That’s why I’m so satisfied with the first 65 minutes because we had total control of the game and played some terrific football. We made the subs to give boys important game time which is important because we need the whole group moving forward with the Premier League Cup and Atlantic Cup that’s coming up, but we just didn’t do as well in the last 20 minutes.”
Yehor Yarmoliuk made it three goals in three games with his strike from the edge of the box against the Terriers and MacFarlane is delighted for the Ukrainian, who continues to settle well in English football.
“I’m really happy for him,” said the B team head coach. “We mentioned before that he’d scored for Ukraine and hadn’t scored for ourselves, but he’s now got three. He has a real presence in the team and really outstanding quality as the group are.”