Ivan the great gives Bees boost
THOMAS Frank believes his promotion-chasing Brentford are stronger after emerging from a threegame losing “dip” to win their past two games.
Frank’s side were behind after just 27 seconds against a physical Stoke side, but battled back with goals from Vitaly Janelt and Ivan Toney to make it two wins on the trot.
“In all seasons, but especially this one, every team will go through a dip at a certain stage, but it’s the ones that can handle it best that will be successful,” he said.
“We showed character, mentality and attitude to come back, the first half was bad.
“In the second half we went from level five to level nine. We were quicker moving forward, we took the initiative, and we had a much bigger mentality and attitude.”
Bees goalkeeper David Raya will want to thank his teammates after a first-minute howler when he passed straight to Tommy Smith, who squared for Brown to slide into an empty net.
Stoke almost stretched their lead after 30 minutes when Smith touched on a ball in the box for Nick Powell who tried to tease it past Raya only for the shot-stopper to atone for his early blunder.
But the Bees had their best chance to level just before the break when a Saman Ghoddos corner was met powerfully by the head of Winston Reid, but his effort flew just over.
It was a different game after the break, though, and Brentford levelled just before the hour mark when Janelt smashed home a screamer from the edge of the box.
They came close within seconds of the restart when
Bryan Mbeumo squared the ball for Josh Dasilva whose close-range shot was blocked by centre-back Harry Souttar.
Substitute Sergi Canos should have teed up Toney minutes later, but his angled pass just had too much on it.
Ghoddos thought he had given his side the advantage after 67 minutes, but his 30yard drive was brilliantly tipped over by Angus Gunn.
Stoke almost regained the lead after 73 minutes when Jordan Cousins’ clever chip beat Raya, but Reid came to the rescue to head clear from under the bar to deny Powell.
But it was the Bees who made their second-half pressure pay via Toney’s sublime strike. Henrik Dalsgaard’s lofted ball was flicked on by
Mbeumo to Toney, who slid home on the half-volley.
Stoke boss Michael O’Neill hailed the clinical nature of Toney as the difference between his side and the Bees.
“We had chances to go ahead and we have to take those like Toney took his. He has proved there is not anyone better than him in this league. It’s a great finish and that’s what separates us,” he said.
O’Neill was pleased with his side’s response to a midweek defeat at Barnsley, but admitted: “It seems like we’re taking a couple of steps forward and then a couple back.
“We didn’t anticipate we would gain promotion, but we wanted to challenge for the top six. We don’t want to end up with nothing to play for.”