Brentford manager, Thomas Frank has vowed to take “a lot of positives” from their 3-2 friendly loss to Fulham.
In their opening friendly of the Premier League Summer Series, Brentford fell behind to Harry Wilson’s third minute goal for Fulham but fought back through Yoane Wissa, only for Bobby De Cordova Reid and Carlos Vinicius to secure victory for the Cottagers despite Kristoffer Ajer netting a second-half consolatory goal for Frank’s Bees.
“I think there were a lot of positives to take from the game,” commented Frank as he bemused a second 3-2 defeat to Fulham in the last 11 months, with their three meetings within that period having all been five-goal thrillers.
The Danish boss proceeded to praise his team for their creativity and passion despite the clash being a pre-season friendly in Philadelphia, USA, as he explained:
“I was very pleased with the way we looked when we went forward – we got two very good goals, we looked very dangerous, we created quite a few chances, and I think we created more than enough to get something out of this game. I’m very pleased.
“Our build-up in phases one and two that we’ve been working on was better, a step forward, we still need to do it even better than we did today. And I liked our high pressure, that was good and aggressive.”
Frank though wasn’t pleased with the “negative” manner in how Brentford conceded their second and third goals, which he iterated that his players must avoid replicating in the future.
40,332 fans across both clubs turned out for the friendly clash with Frank describing the Brentford support as “really nice”, whilst he acknowledged the support, as he quipped: “I know that some have travelled over here and some are American fans and that’s great. Hopefully, being over here, we’re winning even more hearts and more fans.”
Damsgaard Happy With Game Time
Midfielder, Mikkel Damsgaard played 71 minutes before he was substituted for Aaron Pressley, which marked the sixth highest amount of minutes that he had played in a single match since joining the Bees last summer.
“It’s been great to get out there and play a lot of minutes. I think the minutes we played today were very good,” commented Damsgaard who was one of just four players to not be substituted shortly into the second half, alongside; Rico Henry, Vitaly Janelt and Keane Lewis-Potter.
The 23 year-old however was eager to gain an early psychological advantage over Fulham who will be their first away opposition of the new Premier League season, as Brentford head to Craven Cottage in a 3pm BST kick-off on 19 August.
Explaining what it would of meant to beat the Cottagers, Damsgaard said: “Of course, even though it’s friendly, we would like to have got the win against them, but I think we took a good step towards getting in good shape.”
Damsgaard also refused to let the hot weather conditions be an excuse for the result, as he concluded: “It was very hot today – hotter than usual – but the way we want to play throughout the season means we have to be in very, very good shape, so hopefully the push today will make it even easier for next season.”
Brentford now face Brighton on 26 July in Atlanta before taking on Aston Villa in Landover on 30 July to conclude their Stateside trip.
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