FRANK: LET’S KEEP OUR RUN GOING...
IT’S the clash of the Bees in the FA Cup fourth round tomorrow night – and Brentford manager Thomas Frank doesn’t want to get stung by NonLeague Barnet.
Brentford edged to a 1-0 home win against League One outfit Oxford United in round three and now take on a side two rungs further down the ladder in front of the BT cameras.
Darren Currie’s Barnet are in the bottom half of the National League, but pulled off a superb 1-0 victory at Championship high-flyers Sheffield United in the last round. This time, the north London Bees have home advantage and will be pumped up to take another second tier scalp.
Sell-out
Danish boss Frank, 45, who has led Brentford on a seven-match unbeaten run after a testing start to his Brentford reign, said: “We are playing a team from a lower league, it’s live on the telly, I think it will be a sell-out and it’s under the floodlights. It’s going to be fantastic.
“We are clear favourites and it would be a massive disappointment if we didn’t get through. We respect Barnet and the history of the Cup – it wouldn’t be the only time in history if the worst thing happened on Monday.
“When you are on an unbeaten run you want to continue it and we want to go on a Cup run – the FA Cup is special.”
Currie, just appointed permanent Barnet manager after a successful spell as caretaker-boss, wants his players to show the same attitude they displayed against Sheffield United.
“It was a really incredible day,” he said. “They played with the bravery and courage I asked them to.
Pleasure
“I was actually quite calm on the touchline. It was a real pleasure standing there watching them play the way they played.
“It was, obviously, wonderful to win the game but if we’d played that way and not won, I would have still been very proud of them because they played very well.
“There’s nothing to fear. At the end of the day, a lot of these boys want to play in the Championship one day.
“So here is your opportunity to prove, not only to everyone else, but to yourself that you can do it.
“At Sheffield United, they embraced that challenge and I really hope they do that again on Monday.”