Brentford B Head Coach Neil MacFarlane was left delighted with his players following their Premier League Cup victory over Blackburn Rovers Under-21s on Tuesday evening.

The young Bees picked up a 3-2 win in their opening fixture of their campaign in Group D with goals from Alex Gilbert, Nico Jones and Kyreece Lisbie in an entertaining affair at Leyland County Ground.

“I thought it was an unbelievable game,” said Neil. “It was such high-tempo football with a lot of quality in it. To get our Premier League Cup campaign off to this start in the first year that we’ve been involved in it- I’m really thrilled for the group.”

The side had to contend with some Blackburn pressure for the opening period, but Neil felt that his side defended well and grew into the match with some well taken goals.

He continued: “I thought Blackburn were very good in the opening 20 minutes of the game and I thought they dominated the opening spell. I thought defensively we were excellent when we were forced back into the low block. We had some terrific blocks and when we had to clear it, we did so. We were really organised in that respect and grew into the game midway through the first half. We scored a terrific goal with Kyreece squaring it for Alex, we lost a penalty towards the end, but what a response from the group to get right back on it and score from a wide free-kick through Nico.”

Having wrestled control in the dying moments of the first period, Neil felt that going into the break at 2-1 gave the side a boost going into the second period. The B Team Head Coach also praised forward player Lisbie for his fantastic running once again as he earned his first goal in a Bees shirt.

He said: “It was a real boost. I said to them at half-time that I think that we can do better with the ball and a fair reflection of the first half would have been 1-1 but we got the lead and grew into that in the second half where we were outstanding. We had real control of the game and had some terrific patterns of play and some unbelievable chances. We got pegged back after dominating the opening 15 minutes after the break but our response at the end was terrific. I was also really pleased for Kyreece because, like the whole team, he put in an unbelievable shift. I’m thrilled for the players.

“You see Kyreece chasing back when we’re broken at any point and the whole team were hurtling back. That’s what they do, their work ethic and spirit is really high at the moment- we’re on the back of three wins in a row and we’re building all the time.”