BEES SEARCH FOR LIFT-OFF
BEFORE the international break, Brentford were flying. Since then, they haven’t been able to get off the runway.
Following a nine-match unbeaten run that lifted them to mid-table, the Bees were buoyant, but then came the two-week hiatus.
On their return to action, the Bees slumped to a 2-0 defeat at Neil Warnock’s Cardiff last Saturday.
To make it even more frustrating, striker Neal Maupay embarrassingly fluffed his lines when presented with an open goal when the Bees trailed just 1-0.
Cardiff scored their second just a couple of minutes later…
Then came a midweek home game against lowly Burton, a game the Bees would have felt confident of taking three points from.
The Brewers put up a yellow wall to block their path, but it looked as though Florian Jozefzoon’s stunning free-kick early in the second half would earn maximum points.
However, Burton’s Ben Turner headed home in the 78th minute to stun the Griffin Park faithful and leave the Bees with just a point.
After a frustrating few days, it’s perhaps good timing that the Bees have a tasty derby at QPR to look forward to as they try to find their momentum again.
Last season, the Bees twice got the better of their west London rivals, winning 2-0 at Loftus Road at the end of October and then triumphing 3-1 at Griffin Park in April.
In addition, Dean Smith’s men have already tasted victory against their neighbours this term, romping to a 4-1 win in the Carabao Cup second round in August.
It means the Bees go into the derby in good heart and eager to get back on track – and goalkeeper Dan Bentley is up for the challenge.
“They are the games you want to play in,” said the 24-year-old. “The atmosphere is going to be that extra notch up and the fans will get right behind us.
“We did the double over them last year, which was nice. The fans want to see us go and earn three points again, but it’s down to us to go there and actually make it happen. We mustn’t be too excited by the occasion, be too up or too down after the Burton game.
“We have to keep level heads, make sure we go into the game with confidence and know we can go there and get a result.” As for why things haven’t clicked since the return to action, Bentley has his ideas.
“Perhaps we’ve lost a little bit of loss of rhythm,” he said.
“Before the international break we were flying, scoring goals, not conceding many, keeping the ball really well and playing teams off the park. The last two games we haven’t.
“I don’t think for a second we’re going through a barren spell or anything like that, but we need to get back into the rhythm of the way we were playing.”
Bentley acknowledged the Bees were off colour against Burton, but doesn’t believe they need to panic.
“I think we’re more frustrated with the fact the performance was so poor, rather than the fact we were 1-0 up and it finished 1-1,” added the former Southend shot-stopper.
“Our performance levels have been really high most of the season, but we lacked the cutting edge, that final pass. I don’t think we have really tested their keeper.
“We can’t expect three points based on that performance because it wasn’t good enough.
“Yes, we are disappointed. We were very sloppy in possession and didn’t have the fluency we’ve had.
“But we shouldn’t over-think what’s going wrong. It’s two games, it wasn’t a loss (against Burton) so it’s not the end of the world.”
Indeed, if they can get a victory against the R’s tomorrow night, they will be flying high again.