Youth Team manager Jeremy Steele could not hide his disappointment as The Bees slipped to their second defeat of the season with a 3-0 loss in their Under 18 Professional Development League Two South fixture away at Huddersfield Town on Saturday morning.
The Bees were never really in the game and fell behind in the eighth minute as Liam Coogans finished neatly from just inside the box.
Huddersfield doubled their lead just before the hour through Ronan Coughlan and wrapped up the points late on as Rekiel Pyke grabbed a deserved goal.
Speaking to Bees Player after the match Jeremy thought the lack of care in possession really hampered his side.
The former Stoke City coach said that no side could be as careless in possession as The Bees were and hope to win a game of football.
“Today was frustrating in the sense that we needed to be better than we were,” said Jeremy.
“By the end however the frustration had dissipated because it had been such a bad performance for 90 minutes.
“Normally you are frustrated because there are patches of play where you think you can build on that but we never had that today.
“They were by far the better team today, they played well and to be honest 3-0 was a low scoreline for the performance that we put in.
“It was way below the standard.
“We passed the ball horrifically and I can’t remember a chain of passes that lasted more than three or four passes.
“We gave the ball away on getting it back a lot off the first pass.
“If you do that you are asking to be counter-attacked and you are asking to be exposed.
“If you work ever so hard to get it back and you give it away straight away it is demoralising for the players on the pitch who have worked hard to press or get into their shape.
“We were miles away from the standard we were looking for, both technically and tactically, but technically today the passing was horrific.
“We were so technically poor that it just put us on the back foot for the entire match.
“We are not like that normally.
“Usually we pass the ball crisply, have good passages of play, it is not always perfect, but the style is there to be seen.
“Today we were just very poor in possession of the football, our movement wasn’t great, but we never gave ourselves time for that movement to happen because our first pass was straight to a Huddersfield player and they were countering us again.
“We were poor before the goal and it was coming.
“From the first touch of the ball we gave it away five or six times in those opening eight minutes.
“I don’t think we were out of our half in the first three minutes we were so bad and it just continued from there.
“That performance is so far away from where those players need to be to step up to the Under-21s and later on down that line to be first-team players that they need to look at themselves today.
“If they thought that they had cracked it hitting the top of the league last week, albeit for 24 hours, they definitely haven’t.
“That might be a little kick they need to switch back on again because that was a massively off-day.”
Brentford’s Youth Team climbed, albeit temporarily, to the top of the Under-18 Professional Development League Two South after last Friday’s win over Crewe Alexandra after a fine start to the season.
Jeremy’s side had only lost one game ahead of Saturday’s trip to West Yorkshire which made Saturday’s performance all the more disappointing for Jeremy.
The Youth Team manager refused to blame complacency for the defeat but said that The Bees were just beaten by the better team on the day.
“I don’t think the boys have been complacent in any way,” said Jeremy.
“I didn’t feel that in training or in the preparation for the game.
“They were all very professional about what they were doing when they were staying in the hotel.
“I haven’t felt any complacency in that sense.
“Today they have come up against a good side in Huddersfield who passed the ball well and counter-attacked and pressed well and they were better than us all over the park today.
“Sometimes you lose football matches and they were better than us.”
Brentford lost another two players to injury ahead of Saturday’s trip to West Yorkshire to add to an extensive sick list.
In total The Bees were missing ten players through injury and the suspension of Chris Mepham following his red card against Coventry City.
Jeremy refused to blame the injury list for the defeat and added that those players who did play had not done their chances of retaining their starting spot any favours with their performances.
“We had Romayn Pennant who was with the squad travelling us dropping out with injury so there was an additional injury when travelling up,” said Jeremy.
“It is a slight problem but having said that we have 24 scholars so each of them will play their part this season.
“When given their opportunity they have to take it.
“Whether other players might be higher up the pecking order from their performances last season doesn’t make any difference.
“These players will get their game time and time on the pitch and if they play well then they will stay in the team but a lot of them haven’t done themselves any favours today.
“All 11 players cannot be happy with their performance.”
Next up for Jeremy on Saturday are Leeds United and the Youth Team boss is looking for a good reaction from his side.
United have taken ten points from their seven games this season and go into Saturday’s game on the back of a 4-1 victory over Bristol City.
The Whites beat Brentford 4-1 in Yorkshire last season and Jeremy is hoping to gain revenge at Jersey Road this time round.
“I hope to see a reaction building up to Leeds United on Saturday because if there isn’t then it is going to be the same performance, same result and same outcome,” said Jeremy.
“You can’t play that badly and even be in a game of football.
“I don’t think we were in a game of football today as we didn’t compete and it was very one sided.
“If that happens again then I don’t think Leeds will let us off the hook.
“The funny thing about the Leeds game last year was that we played really well for 45 minutes and that game was more frustrating to me than today’s game because we showed that we totally outplayed Leeds in the first-half and then lost the battle in the second-half.
“They were very direct and physical and they came out in the second-half wanting to put their first-half performance right.
“We couldn’t live with them in that sense with a lot of Under-16s and first-year’s in the team at that time.
“That was frustrating because you saw how well we could play and then we died out.
“I would like to put last year’s game right because I would like to play well for 90 minutes.
“Hopefully we can play well against Leeds for 90 minutes and most importantly put today right.
“The Under-18s manager last year Neil Redfern has stepped up to the first-team so he won’t be with the group.
“I assume the philosophy will be very similar.
“We expect a battle but we expect that in any game.
“You need to win the battle to be able to impose your philosophy on the game.
“At the very least we need to compete physically with Leeds and then it’s about what we do with the football.”