WONDER WATKINS CONTINUES METEORIC RISE

OLLIE WATKINS dropped to his knees as his penalty soared high above the crossbar and, for a moment, looked stunned. Then he picked himself up and resumed what he had been doing all match: demanding the ball and running at defenders. If Brentford’s flying 21-year-old seemed surprised by the miss, that is because everything else he tried came off. It was his driving run and cute reverse pass that panicked Pontus Jansson into conceding the penalty and, although he did not add to his seven goals this season, his movement with and without the ball on the left meant Leeds’s defence never settled. Confidence can slip into complacency, however, and Watkins deserves as much credit for shrugging off the miss and continuing to cause havoc, hitting the crossbar and playing a part in Brentford’s late third goal. ‘To be honest, I was thinking about scoring before I’d even hit it,’ Watkins said. ‘I went to go high and got it all wrong.’ Wrong has not been a word associated with Watkins in the past two years. After impressing on loan at Weston-super-Mare in the sixth tier, Watkins excelled at Exeter in League Two, following in the footsteps of Dele Alli and Gareth Bale by winning the Football League’s Young Player of the Year award last season. Brentford came calling with a £1.8million move this summer and Watkins has made the leap through the divisions seamlessly. ‘His use of the ball was very good,’ said Brentford manager Dean Smith, whose side are unbeaten in nine. ‘We played through him in the first half, and even the defensive side of his game has improved immensely.’ Smith’s tone may have been different had Yoann Barbet and Ryan Woods not scored late goals to add to Neal Maupay’s first-half strike and negate Ezgjan Alioski’s equaliser for Leeds. Brentford’s late flurry piled the pressure on Thomas Christiansen, manager of a Leeds team who have now lost six of their last seven in the league. But he insisted he will be in charge to face Middlesbrough after the international break. ‘There are 12 teams in the Championship with a better budget than we have,’ he said. ‘But we are still fighting.’