Brentford manager, Thomas Frank praised his players for how they “gave everything” in a 2-1 home defeat to Newcastle United.
Having missed a 29th minute penalty at Gtech Community Stadium, Ivan Toney fired the Bees ahead with his second spot kick on the stroke of half-time before second-half goals from Joelinton and Alexander Isak completed a comeback win for Newcastle.
The result meant that Brentford lost at home for the first time since they were defeated by Arsenal in September.
“What a performance. Simply, what a performance,” commented Frank as he praised his players for their display against the third-placed Magpies.
Brentford though dominated the first half but two clinical second-half moments from Newcastle proved decisive, yet Frank was pleased with the Bees’ overall effort as he said: “The players, throughout the game, gave everything. First half, I haven’t seen a team do that to Newcastle this season.
“We could have been 3-0 up after a missed penalty and a marginal offside.
“We kept going in the second half, plenty of effort. Unfortunately, two moments decided the game. Joelinton made a good action inside the penalty area; there are a lot of players around him and I think he hit the legs of David. We were unlucky there.
“The second moment, that decided the game, was a good finish from a £63 million player.”
Frank however iterated that dominating Newcastle across the entire match would of been difficult, as he continued: “I just think we were playing against a team that are very good.
“So, expecting us to run over them all 90 minutes is probably a little bit too much, even though I love the players and the team – they did fantastic.
“As I said, it was just two moments that decided it. After that, we came back, put pressure on them, and we probably should have equalised.”
Captain, Pontus Jansson was substituted in the first-half due to injury and Frank post-match stated that he is “gutted” to lose the Swedish defender but hopes that he will be back before end of season.
Brentford now sit ninth in the Premier League and 13 points off a potential Champions League spot with eight matches left of this season.
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