Youth Team defender Chris Mepham said he and his teammates need to put Saturday’s 4-1 Under-18 Professional Development League Two South defeat against Swansea City behind them quickly ahead of tomorrow’s FA Youth Cup tie with Hull City.
It was only The Bees second defeat in eight matches in the league and their first loss against Swansea in five games.
The Bees have an immediate chance to put Saturday’s defeat right when they travel to Hull City on Tuesday for an FA Youth Cup Third Round tie and Chris said they are keen to get the defeat out of the system quickly.
Speaking to Bees Player after the match Chris said: “I haven’t experienced the Youth Cup yet but the buzz around the changing room seems very positive.
“Everybody is looking forward to it and there is no better way to turn it around than a win against Hull City on Tuesday.
“You have got to treat Hull like a Premier League side and give them that respect.
“You can’t treat them like a Category Three team because they have got that Premier League status.
“We have got to treat them like any other big team but I don’t think that puts us off in any way.
“We will go into the game as normal with a lot of enthusiasm but they are a good side.
“It is excellent going into a game with good momentum and confidence.
“We need to go into the game how we have done recently having beaten big teams.
“It is a very good opportunity and it would be great to get a big team in the next round if we get through.
“You can’t look at a performance like Saturday’s and let it affect your season.
“We have been playing very well throughout the season and hopefully it is just a one-off.
“You have got to hold your hands up and say Swansea City are a very good side.”
Brentford were under the cosh from the get-go against The Swans on Saturday morning and fell behind after 20 minutes as Owain Jones scored from the spot.
Kyle Copp made it two ten minutes later and Daniel James made it 3-0 before half-time with a fine individual goal.
Brentford improved after half-time but The Swans grabbed a fourth through James with 20 minutes to go.
The Bees did manage a late consolation as Reece Cole scored from the spot to give the score-line more respectability.
Chris admitted it had been a very disappointing day, especially given the amount of travelling that they had covered getting to the game.
The tall defender felt Swansea were the better side and their intense pressing game didn’t give The Bees a chance to impose their style on the game.
“It is disappointed to lose especially with a long journey like this coming three or four hours on the coach,” said Chris.
“We really stuck to it second-half; we had a much better half and to keep it down to just one goal second-half was a positive.
“I think they were the better team on the day.
“Their front three were very good and their number 11 caused us lots of problems.
“We didn’t get into our normal flow and we didn’t express ourselves first-half because we were on the back foot.
“I like to think they were a very similar team to us.
“They looked to play football on the floor and they like to press.
“They set up like we normally do but they had more chance to press because they looked after the football more than we did.
“Every time I got the ball I got shut down quickly.
“When those sort of teams try and press you are obviously going to make mistakes.
“You just have to be brave on the ball and the coaches tell us that if we make a mistake it doesn’t really matter.”
At 3-0 down at half-time Chris said the team knew that their first-half performance hadn’t been good enough.
Chris admitted that the coaching staff didn’t have to say much at half-time as the players knew they had to be better and he was pleased with the improved performance in the second 45 minutes.
“We knew in ourselves it wasn’t good enough,” said Chris.
“We have been playing enough Youth Team matches to know what is right and what is wrong.
“We were very disappointed that we conceded from a set-piece.
“Jon said we needed to come out in the second-half and be a lot better, which we were.
“It is horrible going into a changing room 3-0 down but it was up to us to turn it round.
“Managers can only say so much to influence you but deep down it comes from you.
“I am glad that the boys were able to turn it round second-half.
“We needed a reaction because if it had carried on I don’t think it would have been very nice.
“The reaction was positive; we looked to play more football and it seemed like the possession evened out.”
Bees Player subscribers can listen to the full interview here