BENHAM: WE MADE MARINUS MISTAKE

BRENTFORD owner Matthew Benham admits the Championship club only have themselves to blame for their disastrous appointment of Marinus Dijkhuizen as head coach in the summer.

The Dutchman was sacked by the Bees last month after winning just two of the first eight games of the season.

In his previous job at Excelsior, Dijkhuizen led them to promotion to the Dutch Eredivisie and kept them in the top flight.

“We did a lot of research and looked at his record,” Benham said.“One of the big mistakes we made is that we got quite far down the line and were pretty committed and then we got a very bad reference.We discounted it.

“The bad reference was from the agent of someone who was a substitute in his team. We said ‘Of course it’s a bad reference, he’s bitter about not playing. We can ignore that’. It is a mistake I have made many times over the years in betting.

“Once you are committed to a bet and you get some evidence that goes against it, you easily dismiss it. The reference didn’t agree with our views, so we ignored it.”