‘BEES NEVER RELAX’

THOMAS FRANK wants his Brentford stars to use their performance against Manchester City in midweek as an inspiration for the second half of the season.

The Bees gave a good account of themselves against league leaders City despite losing 1-0 and, ahead of today’s clash with Aston Villa, Frank (above) is keen for them to maintain the same level.

He said: “I definitely hope it improves their self-confidence.

“And an extra awareness that we are difficult to play against, that we can compete against any team if we are on our day, do our basics right in terms of the defensive side of the game, invest in the fitness and the set-pieces.

“If we do that well then we can continue to compete and if we continue to believe that then we have a good chance.

“We just need to keep working very hard to keep building that platform and strategy – and never, never relax.”

Having come up against Pep Guardiola in midweek, Frank now faces Steven Gerrard – but neither is ‘the best player he has managed against’.

Thinking long and hard, Frank said: “I guess it would be one of Gerrard or Frank Lampard. Oh, Patrick Vieira. Guardiola was pretty good.

“Four very good midfielders – but I’ll go with Vieira.”

Frank only ever played amateur football himself and admitted that beating ex-pros used to be a motivation for him in his early days as a coach.

He said: “Maybe when I was younger – but, today, no.

“I always acknowledge when someone has had a fantastic playing career – but then we just compete as two people trying to lead our teams to

victory.”