‘It’s going to be interesting’ – Thomas Frank predicts exciting promotion race

Posted Thursday, January 28, 2021 by PA

Brentford manager Thomas Frank believes the Sky Bet Championship promotion race will go down to the wire after his side were frustrated by 10-man Swansea.

The Bees are now unbeaten in 17 league matches but still sit behind Swansea, who returned to the automatic promotion places after the dramatic draw.

Brentford dominated large spells at the Liberty Stadium and finally found the breakthrough thanks to substitute Tarique Fosu’s header after Kyle Naughton saw red for two bookable offences.

But Conor Hourihane salvaged a point with a wicked free-kick from out wide that evaded everyone before finding the back of the net.

“These six teams will take it right until the end. Last year Leeds were the best team in the division but this year there isn’t one team that stands out. It’s going to be interesting,” said Frank.

“When we come here and absolutely dominate from minute one until the last minute, it is very impressive. Of course, when it is 11 versus 10 you have to go on and win but that is why football is called the beautiful game.

“I don’t know how we didn’t win this game, I’m very pleased with the performance.

“Swansea are a well-coached and well-drilled team and when we come here and absolutely dominate from minute one until the last minute, it is very impressive. We had 12 shots to one after 70 minutes which is crazy for a top game.

“There was frustration because it could have been a big win, but we have to take the praise of this game forward.”

Swansea’s defence put their bodies on the line to prevent a late Brentford goal that would have given them the edge in the battle for promotion places.

And Swansea head coach Steve Cooper was pleased with the spirit shown by his side.

“I thought the whole team put a shift in,” said Cooper. “We had to show a bit of heart and soul when we went down to 10 men and we did that.

“We’ll aim to do better in that with the next game, but I’m really happy with the character and resilience of the lads.

“Games aren’t always going to go the way you want, but sometimes when you’re down to 10 men, it’s about digging in.

“It was a great delivery from Conor for the goal, an area that we talked about in the game plan. The goalkeeper’s starting positions we felt was an area we could hit, and Conor’s put it where we planned to, and it’s brilliant to get ourselves back in the game.

“They had all of the ball to be fair and that will increase the possession stats and things like that, but we showed good resilience to get a point. We’ll take it and move on.”