Frank frustrated as Brentford held by Huddersfield

Posted Sunday, January 19, 2020 by PA

Brentford manager Thomas Frank was left frustrated after his promotion-pushing side drew a blank away to relegation-strugglers Huddersfield.

Frank’s side missed the chance to leapfrog Fulham into third place and close the gap on second-placed Leeds, who were beaten away to QPR earlier in the day.

Midfielder Josh Da Silva struck a post with three minutes remaining, but it was the hosts who created the best chance of the 0-0 contest when leading scorer Karlan Grant incredibly blazed over from point-blank range.

“We will find out at the end of the season whether that’s a valuable point or not,” said Danish coach Frank.

“We always try to go and get three points. I said to the players before that Huddersfield are a very difficult side to play against and they showed that again today.

“Danny [Cowley] and his coaching staff have done a really good job since they’ve come into the club. It’s not surprising that they were well-prepared for us and that they wanted to do everything they could to close us down.

“That’s natural because we’re on quite a good run and, at this moment in time, we’re pretty good going forward. So I would say our foundation is still really good and we’re still really difficult to score against.

“I think Huddersfield created absolutely nothing except for one really big chance, which was for me a clear misunderstanding from my centre-back [Julian Jeanvier]. He should have just cleared the ball. I don’t know why he just let it go past him in the penalty area.

“But except for that, they had zero things, which I’m pleased with and shows why we’ve progressed so much on the defensive side.”

For once the Bees’ impressive strike force of Said Benrahma, Bryan Mbeumo and Ollie Watkins failed to fire.

And Frank said: “Offensively on the day our famous BMW was not the tuned version. Definitely not. None of the three were.

“We know, especially away from home, you need one of them to step up to the plate and have a top game. It’s always a bit more difficult [away from home] and none of them had a top game.

“We didn’t have that, but it was not only them. I think throughout the game too many of my players didn’t play simple enough, didn’t run enough and that final pass was not there.

“We actually only had one big chance where we hit the post, but then I think we had 10 or 12 good opportunities where we needed to get more out of it.”

Huddersfield coach Cowley was happy his side bounced back from a 5-2 mauling at home to Stoke and a 2-1 away defeat to fellow strugglers Barnsley last time out in the league.

“It was painful losing to Stoke. I don’t think I’ve ever conceded five goals in a game during my managerial career,” said Cowley, who gave debuts to three new players.

“Today wasn’t perfect but it was a step in the right direction. Hopefully collectively we’ll take confidence from that and it helps us moving forward.

“We’re respectful of Brentford and what they are, they are one of the best teams in the league. But we restricted them to not many chances and gained confidence in possession.

“They’re [Brentford] one of the best teams in the league, but the dressing room feels better. We’ve dug in, worked really hard and the new players have injected some new blood.

“We know this journey we’re on is not going to be easy, but all in all, when you consider the quality of Brentford, that’s a good point for us.

“With respect to the players that are already here, we’ve been waiting for the cavalry to arrive.”