Development Squad Head Coach Kevin O’Connor has called on his young players to learn from their defensive mistakes as they lost 3-1 to Colchester United this afternoon.
With a behind-closed-doors friendly also taking place this afternoon Kevin’s side included three U18s and seven first year professionals for the trip to Essex. With the scores level at the break, Reece Cole’s fine free-kick cancelling out an early Femi Akinwande goal, The Bees conceded twice in three minutes after the break to fall to defeat.
Speaking to Bees Player after the match Kevin felt his side made too many mistakes defensively against The Us and called on his young players to learn their lessons and ensure those mistakes don’t happen again.
“It was a disappointing defeat,” said Kevin. “We seem to have got into this mindset now where we have to concede before we start playing and that is really frustrating. I don’t think it was a 3-1 match. I though the teams were fairly even but we were just very weak defensively today. We went through one on one with Herson Rodrigues Alves and the keeper has made a good save and then within 40 seconds they have scored from what was our throw-in.
“They are young lads but they will have to learn that once you concede one you don’t concede straight away again, which we did. It was 3-1 then and that killed the game. All you can hope with such a young side is that they learn from it and it doesn’t happen again. Our final decision attacking let us down a couple of times where we went for goal when we could have put it back across goal and created something else. The response was good for going 3-1 down but the problem is the fact we were 3-1 down in the first place.”
Despite the defeat and the nature of the goals that the side conceded Kevin felt on the whole the young players acquitted themselves well against an in-form Colchester side.
“I think the young lads did ok today considering it is a big step up from U18s football,” said Kevin. “There is plenty for them to improve on but it wasn’t a bad start. We were looking for big performances from the older guys in the squad today and not too many of them did to be honest. One or two of them hit their levels where we needed all of them to do that to help the younger lads. That is something that they can learn from and we can move on again.”
It was announced today that James Ferry, Zain Westbrooke and Tom Field had all signed new 18-month contracts at Griffin Park to remain until the summer of 2017.
Kevin said he was really happy to be able to offer the trio their new deals and said that showed the improvements that he felt his players were making.
“The three lads signed new contracts this week shows that the boys are improving,” said Kevin. “We are really pleased with them and their performance levels have been getting better over the season. It was a really nice meeting to be able to tell them about the deals. Tom Field has again gone with the first team today so it shows that the three of them are doing well. There are one or two others that we are seeing good signs from so on that front it is positive.”
Bees Player subscribers can listen to the full interview below