Brentford manager, Thomas Frank has bemused his team’s “incredible” performance in a 1-1 draw against Manchester United.
Frank’s Bees dominated the game with 31 shots of which four attempts rattled the woodwork but fell behind to Mason Mount’s clinical 96th minute strike for Utd, only for Kristoffer Ajer to equalise three minutes later to snatch a valiant point.
The result left Brentford still sat 15th and five points from safety, but Frank was impressed with his team’s performance, having thrashed Man Utd 4-0 in West London last season as he quipped that the quality level in the draw was better than that victory.
“I think this performance was one or two levels higher than the 4-0 win against them,” commented Frank as he proceeded to describe the result as puzzling given his team’s dominance.
“That’s the interesting thing in football, why it’s so strange and difficult to manage and understand sometimes.
“But what a performance and I hope all the fans are really proud of the team; we are playing against a more or less full-strength Manchester United team.
“We’ve got our entire back four out, we’ve got our loan left-back out, we’ve got our captain out – but we destroyed Man United in many ways, 31 shots.”
Frank though was relieved that even one point recognised their efforts as he continued: “I’m so, so, so happy that we got at least a point; if not, I probably would have lost faith in the football Gods!
“But how we are not getting three points today is incredible.”
Brentford currently have 27 points but Frank doesn’t believe that the points tally reflects the performance levels amidst their injury crisis in defence.
“I know we have lost too many games, but the performances have been better than the points we have got, there’s no doubt about that. There are reasons, there are mistakes, and there are margins, that’s football, unfortunately, sometimes.
“But it’s been coming and there’s been a lot of good performances… so we just need to keep going and, with all these setbacks and the struggles this team has been through.”
Praising the Bees’ mentality as they continued to battle relegation, Frank concluded: “Being this dominant today, going down 1-0, but to then come back and equalise; the character, the mentality in the team, wow.”
Ajer echoed Frank’s sentiment as he added: “The mentality in the group is fantastic. It was tough to concede the goal but I knew we would create more chances.”
The Norway international also has scored in consecutive matches which he described as “not like me!”
Ajer went on to applaud Ivan Toney for his assist as he said: “It was fantastic play from Ivan to bring that ball down and the cutback was amazing.
“It was amazing to celebrate a really deserved goal. We fought the whole game to get it, so we had to celebrate it.”