DESPITE the disappointment of the end result, Braintree Town manager Glen Driver was glad that he was able to clarify some important things about players in his squad from their pre-season defeat by Brentford.

Driver admitted that the B's had given his side "a footballing lesson" as they showed a clinical edge and punished defensive lapses in easing to a 4-0 victory.

It was a first defeat under Driver as manager and although he was frustrated by aspects of what he saw, he said it had been a helpful experience as it had highlighted areas that needed closer scrutiny and also a few players who may not be what he requires in his squad.

Driver said: “It was a footballing lesson if I’m being brutally honest.

“We came up against a very experienced Championship side who moved the ball very well and caused us a lot of problems.

“Their wide players coming in off the line and playing inside in the final third caused us a hell of a lot of problems.

“You could see the levels of full-time players, but what it did for me was to separate the men from the boys in regards to what we have in the changing room.

“Numbers will be cut as of Wednesday on the back of that because we need to start whittling it down to go with what we feel is going to be our squad come the start of the season.

“We learned a lot from that game, but then we have learned from all four of the games we’ve had.

“But there are some players who we have been telling the same information across all those games and that’s disappointing.

“Everyone knows the situation this club is in financially and we have given players and opportunity to showcase and work hard for us, but unfortunately in the four games some players just haven’t worked hard enough.

“That stuck out like a sore thumb against Brentford.

“When balls are given away, I want to see a reaction; show a bit of hunger to go and win it back because Bath (who Braintree face in the first game of the Vanarama National League South season on August 3) are not going to feel sorry for us.

“That Brentford side certainly didn’t feel sorry for us and we won’t feel sorry for ourselves either.

“I know where we are at, I know where we need to be and we are still a little way off."

Driver is encouraging his team to be brave on the ball and play it out from the back, but he feels there are some within the current squad who may not be quite what he is looking for and is ready to let some go so they can look for positions at other clubs.

The Iron boss didn't want to be too down on his players because he acknowledged what a strong Brentford side his team had come up against, but he said he would have to act if he felt things weren't working.

He added: “There were positives, but they didn’t quite outweigh the negatives, so we’ll deal with the negatives.

“I think they were mostly caused by us being a bit weak at times.

“We want to play out from the back but we have to slow it down and see the danger; we didn’t notice the danger at times in that game.

“There were many times when we gave the ball away in the final third and good teams will punish you for that; that was certainly the case against Brentford.

“Yes, we want to play out from the back with an attractive brand of football, but it’s knowing when to play.

“We hadn’t trained together for the best part of two weeks because of the games we’ve been playing but we’ll look to put that right come Thursday.

“Myself and Tony (Kinsella) will talk about it at length and we’ll put it right because we have to.

“Anyone coming through the gate at the moment will say ‘just press them high and they’ll give you the ball’ but we don’t want to be recognised as a side who can be pressed and we’ll give away goals.

“We want teams to come against us and have to work hard.

“Maybe we might have to have a look at the system.

“We have personnel who are maybe not seeing the picture early enough but I won’t be too hard on the boys after that Brentford game because they are a very good side who were able to pull us all over the place.

“It was a very big learning curve for us."