Thomas Frank pleased with Brentford’s tempo in victory over Coventry

Posted Sunday, October 18, 2020 by PA

Brentford head coach Thomas Frank hailed his side’s patience and persistence as they made their possession count against a stubborn Coventry.

The Dane was full of praise for the Sky Blues, who kept knocking on the door despite shipping two early second-half goals.

“We were good for 75 minutes and really good in spells. We started the game fast and dominated from the first second, but in the last 15 or 20 minutes we needed to do better,” he said.

“We got the first goal early after half time and that was down to our patience, persistence and determination to keep playing at a high tempo, so I am pleased with that.”

An Ivan Toney brace was enough to seal the win, but Frank admitted he will want to review the final stages on the video.

“That will be the most important part of the game for me to watch back because defensively we lost a little bit of intensity and needed to do so much better,” he said.

“Sometimes when you are dominating you can drop your standards a bit, but Coventry are a very good side and in the last 15 or so minutes they showed that they will do very well in this league.”

Brentford’s cause was hampered by a shoulder injury to Toney, but Frank was optimistic it will not keep him out of the midweek trip to Sheffield Wednesday.

“He scored two top goals and was frustrated about coming off, but it was an impact injury and I was thinking of taking him off anyway,” he said.

“Ivan is about much more than goals. His link up play and persistence are excellent and he will improve massively throughout this season.”

Frank believes the imminent hectic schedule will test the strength of clubs in the division, and added: “We will not rotate but we will use everyone, and everyone needs to be ready to play their part.”

Coventry boss Mark Robins says his players need to start believing in themselves before they can stamp their authority on the Championship.

“We are clearly a team just promoted and trying to find our feet. The level we’ve come into is a huge step up so I just want us to show our real face because we are good,” he said.

“The last third of the game was more us and we started to have a bit of confidence but we have to do that when there is something to lose because this is a tough, tough league.”

Robins wants his players to believe they are good enough and added: “We are good side and deserve to be in this league. We are capable of causing teams problems – even a top side like Brentford – but that is the level of belief we need to get to.”

The Sky Blues boss bemoaned a lack of luck for the Bees’ opening goal, the first of two for new summer signing Toney.

He said: “We were unlucky because the first goal was offside. They got the rub of the green but the second was really poor and that took the game away from us.

“We have to have confidence and get on the front foot but to do that you have to have the right mindset.

“We worked really hard in the first half to keep them at bay but we gave the ball back to them and that’s a problem when you are playing against top players like Brentford have.”