Brentford made the Championship play-offs by beating Wigan
BRENTFORD manager Mark Warburton insisted he always believed his side could achieve a top-six finish this season as they climbed into the play-offs at the death by beating already-relegated Wigan.
Without a home win in four prior to this game, Alex Pritchard’s 26th-minute free-kick eased the majority of the sold-out crowd’s nerves, before secondhalf goals from Jota and top-scorer Andre Gray clinched the win.
And despite the final day drama, Warburton felt his side hadn’t simply snuck into in the final play-off spot.
“I spoke to the players on June 25, the first day of pre-season, and I told them that I had no doubts as to how far they could go this year,” he said.
“We've got a tight squad, which has been the subject of much debate, but if you look at Burnley last year, they’d showed that if you have a tight squad everybody is committed. They tasted success last year and want more.”
The hosts had to win to give themselves any chance of finishing in the play-off places and that showed in their edgy start to the game.
Wigan were the better team to begin with, and Marc-Antoine Fortune, debutant Billy Mckay and James Perch all threatened.
“They were a dangerous opponent,” added Warbuton. “They could take risks and two things could have happened because of that – we could have been dictated by them, or dictated to. We had to be brave, we pushed our players high and once we started getting on the ball more, we did well.”
But after Gray was denied an opener for the hosts after a brilliant last-ditch tackle by Jason Pearce, Griffin Park erupted as Pritchard’s 30-yard free-kick beat another Wigan debutant, goalkeeper Lee Nicholls, thanks to a sizeable deflection.
Not that the home players celebrated the goal; Pritchard’s only reaction was to urge his team-mates to ensure the game re-started as quickly as possible.
The advantage was doubled a minute into the second half as Moses Odubajo played in Jota with a brilliant pass, and the Spaniard slotted coolly past Nicholls.
If there was still doubt as to whether or not this was going to be Brentford’s afternoon, this was confirmed in the 48th minute when Wigan almost got back in the game. McKay’s shot was brilliantly blocked by Jake Bidwell when he looked destined to score, before David Button saved Fortune’s rebound that was almost put into the net by Bidwell.
The Bees’ victory and play-off place was all-but confirmed ten minutes from time, when Gray slotted home after a brilliant, darting run through the Latics’ defence by Jota.
James Tarkowski should have made it four with a 90th-minute penalty, but he tamely shot low into the diving Nicholls’ hands following Don Cowie’s foul on Alan Judge. And the Wigan goalkeeper was the one player praised by manager Gary Caldwell after the game.
“He’s got massive potential,” said Caldwell.
“He took time to get going, but he kept us in the game in the second half.
“But it was a frustrating afternoon, especially in the second half. We weren’t good enough in every department.We didn’t deal with Brentford in the second half; we knew they’d come at us, and we didn’t do enough on or off the ball.
“It’s going to take hard work over the summer to get the right characters into the club to rebuild us and take us back to where we can be – Brentford are an example of how it can be done.”