Ruislip & Eastcote & Northwood Gazette
BEES LOSE CHANCE TO LEAPFROG FULHAM WITH A DRAW
WIN WOULD HAVE SEEN FRANK’S SIDE OVERTAKE FULHAM
BRENTFORD head coach Thomas Frank believes there was only one team that deserved to win Saturday’s wet and windy game at St Andrew’s – his Bees.
Promotion-chasing Brentford were held to a draw by Birmingham City after the home side took the lead through Lukas Jutkiewicz in the 13th minute.
It was an advantage that did not last long though as four minutes later Ethan Pinnock headed in his first Brentford goal from a corner.
While the Bees created plenty of chances, they were unable to make them count and secure the three points that would have seen them leapfrog Fulham into third in the Championship.
However, considering the game was played in the wind and rain of Storm Dennis, Frank was not too disappointed to have drawn the fixture.
“It was OK but I would have preferred to win and in a tough game, if there had been a winner it should have been us,” the head coach said.
“After a difficult start when in the first ten or 15 minutes we didn’t manage to control the game on the ball, they came on to us and had a bit of momentum and got the goal.
“If we want to win we have to do better.
“It’s not like I want to blame a specific player for a big mistake, it’s just a lot of small duels throughout the pitch that we didn’t win.
“But after that the boys did very well to get into the game and we talked about staying in the game no matter what and keep doing what we do.
“We got more control and played through them a couple of times and behind them and scored a beautiful goal from a set piece.
“After that we had some good momentum and created some good chances and could have taken the lead. The second half was very difficult, but we knew that. We defended very well from set pieces and then in the last 10 minutes we got on top and created opportunities and hit the post. So I would have preferred three points, but after a tough game I’ll take a point.
“The conditions and the pitch made it very difficult to play quick enough, but we need to manage that and [learn to] play in every condition. But we couldn’t play as quickly as we wanted and Birmingham did everything they could to slow it down, taking a long time over all the set pieces, but we just need to handle that. I think we had the better chances and apart from the first 15 minutes we dominated the game.”