Brentford Manager Uwe Rösler described his team’s pre-season friendly win over Cardiff City as “deserved” and “morale boosting”.
The Bees came from 2-0 down to beat the Premier League side 3-2 last night.
Uwe said his team were outplayed for a period in the first half but changed their system from 4-3-3 to 4-4-2 and produced a fine comeback.
He said his team produced a very good second half performance and goals from Conor McAleny, who got two, and Paul Hayes gave them the win.
“It was a great result,” said Uwe, speaking after the match.
“The comeback was very positive.
“We showed character, we were outplayed for 15 to 20 minutes in a way I have not seen before.
“Cardiff looked on a different level.
“We stabilised and in the second half we were very good.
“I think Cardiff will do well in the Premier League, it was a great test.
“We didn’t get any injuries and we got a morale boosting win.
“Our pressing didn’t work in the first half, I changed it to 4-4-2 and we were more comfortable.
“We bounced back with two fantastic goals from Conor McAleny and I felt in the second half we deserved the win.”
Uwe said Cardiff dominated the game when his team made mistakes but his players were able to play two different systems and switched seamlessly.
He said his team did not play well in the first half but still created chances and then were much better after the break.
“The first five to ten minutes we were OK but there was 15 minutes of horror where we made mistakes and got punished,” said Uwe.
“Cardiff looked on a different level.
“The players know two different ways of playing.
“We stopped them from playing and attacked them.
“We didn’t play great in the first half but still had four or five chances, that shows how many offensive players with quality we have.
“We continued that in the second half and got great goals.”
Uwe said he wanted his players to approach the game like a competitive one, focusing on the result while trying to play in the way he wanted.
“I said to the players we needed to get our results heads on,” he said.
“We did not want to lose to a Premier League side.
“We want to test ourselves.
“We wanted to attack them in the right way and be difficult to beat.”
Brentford go in to their first Sky Bet League One match of the season on Saturday having lost just once in pre-season.
The Bees beat Championship Millwall as well as Cardiff and were only beaten by Scottish Premier League Champions Celtic.
Uwe hailed the quality of the match programme and thanked Cardiff Manager Malky Mackay for bringing his team to Griffin Park.
“I am very happy,” said Uwe.
“We couldn’t have asked for a better match programme than we had this summer.
“The opposition and quality of them was superb.
“It is a compliment to Malky and Cardiff that they came here and gave us great oppositions.
“I think we all got a very good work out.”
A full video interview with Uwe Rösler is available here for Bees Player subscribers.