Zain Westbrooke thinks that Flemming Pedersen’s style of coaching will suit him as the midfielder looks to kick-on again after an injury hit season. The 19-year-old had been sidelined since early November, after picking up an ankle injury in the defeat to Sheffield United, but returned to play his first 90 minutes in more than three months in last week’s defeat to Charlton Athletic. During his time out injured Zain signed a new one-year contract and the ball-playing midfielder said the injury couldn’t have come at a worse time.

“Just before the injury I had a really good spell and started the majority of the games,” said Zain. “Then I got the injury and got offered the new contract. It is a good time for you and you want to be out playing. You have a lot of confidence and that sorts or wears away with the injury. It is great to be back because I need the minutes. Flemming’s style of coaching has helped me out a lot so far. That is why I was so gutted to miss out on the start as that is where he really enforced his ideas. Flemming plays my sort of game and I think I will really flourish in that sort of play.”

Zain was speaking on Monday after the Development Squad were beaten 3-0 by Bristol City in their latest U21 Professional Development League Two South fixture. An early goal from Adam El-Abd set The Robins on their way. Wade Elliott’s side added a second through Shawn McCoulsky on the half-hour and Connor Evans’s tap-in wrapped up the points just after the break in a match which also saw Chris Mepham sent off with 25 minutes to play. Zain thought that The Bees slow start meant they were always playing catch-up but he felt there was a lot to be proud of when it came to their second-half performance.

“We had too much of a slow start and it took us too long to get going,” said Zain. “They had a good positive start and that put us on the back foot for a lot of the first-half. By the time we got to grips with the game we had conceded another sloppy goal. The sending off in the second-half boosted us a little bit but by then the game was gone. They came out firing at the start and we seemed to be a bit shocked by it. We looked to play quite a strategic game and I think people were a bit slow to do the movements that we had been practicing. That held us back a lot in the first-half. In the second-half we got the movements going and that is when we started playing. We knew there was no point in sitting back and waiting for them to attack. We knew that we had to go, press them high and try and get some goals.”

Monday’s starting XI included Under-16 goalkeeper Ellery Balcombe and three Under-18 scholars, with four more Youth Team players on the bench as Flemming looks to blood young players in Under-21s football. 19-year-old Zain was the second oldest player in the squad and he said he enjoyed having that added responsibility to guide the younger players through the match.

“It was a young team today and I had to put the injury behind me and take control of the game,” said Zain. “I could maybe have done better at the start to calm everyone down as I thought the young boys felt a bit under pressure when we went 1-0 down. In this game you have to move on and progress quickly. It was good to be the one of the oldest out there as sometimes when there are a lot of first-team players you can rely on them. It is good to have younger players in who don’t know as much as you because you have to bring them on and that pushes your performance on.”