Martin Allen says he got “exactly” what he asked for from Barnet’s 5-1 defeat by Brentford on Tuesday evening but admits some “tweaking” is required for the Bees to continue to move in the right direction.

Charlie MacDonald volleyed home superbly against his former club to give Barnet the lead but Stuart Dallas nipped in to head home an equaliser soon after. Two goals in quick succession from Alan Judge then took the game away from the Bees before half time.

Andre Gray and Montell Moore both struck after the break and Kevin O’Connor missed a penalty as Championship Brentford eased to a comprehensive win at The Hive.

Speaking afterwards, Allen was at pains to accentuate the positives, in spite of the emphatic scoreline: “I just though tonight’s game was superb. I thought the effort and commitment of every player in our team was spot-on,” enthused Allen.

“I got exactly what I wanted from the game, which was full effort and commitment and passion and energy for 90 minutes. That’s all I asked for them. ‘Go out and give everything you’ve got’ – that’s what I said at half-time, the same as I asked for before the game and all our players did that.

“We’ve got some bits of tweaking we need to do. I wouldn’t say I’m happy but I’m pleased we’re moving in the right direction,” he added.

The Bees head coach used the game to give the majority of his core squad members their first 90 minutes of pre-season and highlighted the fact his opposite number, Mark Warburton, played two different XIs as a factor in the defeat.

“It was a difficult game and it’s bit weird saying the players did quite well, even though we’ve lost 5-1. But, on the other side of things, I wanted to get them 90 minutes tonight under their belts and all the players, part of the training plan was to give them 90 minutes tonight,” explained Allen.

“The Brentford boys all played 45 minutes each. In the second half we were a bit off the pace but they’ve brought fresh players on who are playing against our players going into their second 45, so there was always going to be a bit of a telling period.”

Pointing to the positives, Allen believes the Bees have improved how they start matches: “Last year against Luton after two minutes in both games they were losing heavily – one of them 2-0 and the other 1-0 with a red card – so on Sunday, we wanted to change that, which is what we did and we started very well.

He continued: “We trained yesterday for two-and-a-half-hours, which you’d never normally do with a league game, so there’s a lot of things to be taken into consideration, but overall, with no injuries tonight, I’m delighted.”