Best side won, concedes boss as City sting Bees
COMEBACK NOT ENOUGH TO EARN FRANK’S MEN A SHARE OF THE POINTS
FRUSTRATED Brentford boss Thomas Frank admitted his team were beaten by the better side, as Stoke City survived a spirted comeback to beat the Bees 3-2 at the bet365 Stadium on Saturday.
Goals from Steve Fletcher, James McClean and Tyrese Campbell did the damage as Michael O’Neill’s impressive side held on to triumph on their home patch.
Substitute Marcus Forss pulled a goal back with 20 minutes remaining and bagged a second in stoppage time in a frantic finish. However, Stoke held on for maximum points as O’Neill’s resilient charges stretched their unbeaten run to seven matches in all competitions.
“On the day we lost to a better team overall,” admitted Frank. “We started very slow in the first half, played with no initiative, no tempo and too many touches.
“And then we don’t help ourselves with their opening two goals. We need to defend better in both situations, especially the first goal, which is somewhere we normally do better.
“In the second half we started better and showed more tempo and more initiative, and played more behind them (Stoke).
“We got into the game, but then gave ourselves a mountain to climb by conceding a third goal.
“After that we showed decent personality in terms of coming back and coming close to maybe getting a lucky draw.
“It’s disappointing we couldn’t start quicker or better, but for whatever reason we know Stoke are well organised and rarely give anything away.
“I said to the boys I thought it would be a 0-0 game which we would win 1-0 in the end, but for whatever reason it ended up 3-2.
“I think that’s a little bit of freak result between these two teams.”
Substitute Forss nearly salvaged a battling draw with a bright double and Frank praised him, saying: “We have two really good strikers who are competing and who can help the team.
“The link-up play between Ivan (Toney) and Marcus was fantastic and a good finish. But we need more than two strikers and more than 11 players, especially this season.
“I’m really pleased he (Marcus) came on and had a good performance.”
Fletcher gave Stoke the perfect start with the first chance of the game on a rain-soaked afternoon.
A move started by a bursting run from McClean, led to Campbell crossing from the left flank and Fletcher nodding home, unmarked, at the back post. Brentford’s defending was nowhere to be seen.
Midway through the half defender Ethan Pinnock was on target with a clever snapshot from Saman Ghoddos’ dangerous inswinging corner, but Fletcher was there to block the effort in his own six-yard box.
Midfielder Jacob Brown, making only his second league start of the season, then forced Raya into a smart save from his goalbound header from a McClean cross.
Stoke were buoyant and two minutes l McClean, doubled the Potters’ advantage. The winger latched on to a neat through ball from Campbell and his left-foot rocket shot deflected off defender Charlie Goode and wrong-footed Raya.
Brentford rallied after the break but the sucker punch came as Stoke countered and Campbell fired home his second goal in two games.
Fletcher pulled the trigger inside the Brentford box in the 67th minute, but Goode produced a superb sliding block to prevent Stoke inflicting any further damage.
Forss then converted Ivan Toney’s flick-on with a drilled finish to get the Potters panicking.
Dasilva soon shot over and Canos drilled a shot just wide of the left upright, before Forss netted again in stoppage time, rounding Davies and firing into the bottom left corner.
But Stoke held on to make sure of maximum points despite the Bees’ best efforts.