Martin Allen was pleased with his side’s ‘tremendous’ performance against Peterborough United this afternoon, praising their ‘desire’ to turn over possession.

The Bees more than held their own against the League One side and arguably enjoyed the better chances in the first-half before succumbing to a Kgosi Ntlhe goal eight minutes after the break.

Speaking afterwards, Allen said: “I thought it was tremendous, that first half performance was. I think they were playing in the Championship [League One] last year, so it was obviously going to be a difficult game but we created lots of chances and played really well.”

It was the Bees’ hunger to win the ball back that impressed Allen the most and the head coach enthused: “The spirit and the attitude and the desire to get the ball back as high up the pitch as possible and work the opposition to get the ball back and then when we got the ball back, we didn’t crumble through exhaustion.

Allen continued: “I think all the supporters will be pleased with what they’ve seen today. We played some good football, moved the ball about the pitch and it was nice to get that little paring together with [Charlie] MacDonald and [John] Akinde, so it was good to see them.

“A couple of other players who have been training with us have done well – Gavin Mahon and Will Antwi – so it was good all round. In the second half I also thought we did well; it was quite a bit more difficult because quite a few more younger players played in the second half, so it wasn’t as easy for them, so I thought they did well and they were unlucky to lose the goal.”

The match was played out in scorching temperatures at The Hive and despite this being both sides’ first game of pre-season, the game was contested at a high tempo, a fact which was not lost on the Bees boss.

“We’ve been training in these temperatures all week and at no point were we ever going to use the temperature as an excuse,” stated Allen.

“Our players are very fit, there’s no doubt about that. You saw it in the first 45 minutes, it was relentless and that’s from the work they’ve done through the summer and also through the work they’ve been doing for the last eight or nine days.”

Allen also revealed after the game trialists Vinny Mukendi and Archange Nkumu would be let go.