Smith calm while Bees buzz
BRENTFORD maintained their recent impressive march towards the Championship play-off places with victory at the Madejski Stadium.
Lasse Vibe’s coolly taken 75th minute goal earned the Bees their fifth win in sixth games and there was little doubt they deserved to take all three points.
Jaap Stam’s Reading, however, are looking in the opposite direction to their dynamism 12 months ago when they earned a play-off place.
A third successive home defeat revealed they are full of shortcomings in almost every area of the field and left them only four points clear of the relegation zone.
Even though they had more possession they managed just three shots on target, with Brentford keeper Dan Bentley only called into serious action when he had to block a closerange shot from Mo Barrow shortly before the end.
The simple reason was Stam’s decision to reward Jon Dadi Bodvarsson with a strikeach er’s role after his midweek FA Cup hat-trick against Stevenage. But he played him alone up front for most of the game.
Against a watertight defence, the Icelander worked tirelessly but, without support, chances were few and far between and they often looked like getting caught on the counter-attack.
Brentford boss Dean Smith played down his team’s chances of getting into a play-off spot, saying: “There’s still 18 games game to go and I would like to have Wolves’ points at the top.
“But we are on a good run and on the balance of play we deserved this win. We missed a few really good chances but my players all worked hard for each other and defensively we worked very hard.
“Our front three put a lot of pressure on them up the field and they all worked hard for other. It could have been an evenly matched game, but we created more chances through hard work and chasing them.”
His mood was in stark contrast to that of Stam, whose players have only won once in their last eight League games and that was against Barnsley in November.
“Everyone here should be worried about relegation,” he said. “We know it’s a difficult situation and it could be difficult to get out of. We know we have just got to do things better.
“There is enough quality in the squad but we have got to play better than this and that’s all about making the right choices, stepping up and making the right decisions.”
The writing was on the wall for Reading as early as the eighth minute when Brentford’s lively winger Florian Jozefzoon found acres of space on the right and from his cross both Vibe and Ollie Watkins had shots bocked by Vito Mannone.
The dangerous Dane Vibe and Yoann Barbet had further chances before the half-time break and the visitors thought they should have had a penalty wheh Tigao Ilori looked to have flattened Vibe in the area.
Reading really only offered a 41st-minute shot from Bodvarsson before the break and while they tried to press forward more throughout the second half they always looked vulnerable when Brentford countered.
And the weakness was summed up by the decisive goal created when Jozefzoon broke powerfully down the left flank. His cross caused chaos in the Reading area and when the ball fell kindly to Vibe, he coolly slotted home from ten yards out.