Thomas Frank wants Brentford to stay grounded after reaching Championship summit - 7M sport

Thomas Frank wants Brentford to stay grounded after reaching Championship summit



Posted Thursday, February 11, 2021 by PA

Thomas Frank wants Brentford to stay grounded after reaching Championship summit

Brentford head coach Thomas Frank urged his team to stay focused after reaching the top of the Championship with a 3-1 victory at Reading.

Reading had taken the lead when Lucas Joao scored from a 24th-minute penalty – his 19th goal of the season – but Josh Dasilva equalised before the break.

Although Brentford had to defend for much of the second half, late goals from Dasilva and Ivan Toney – his 23rd of the campaign – secured the win.

Brentford, last season’s beaten play-off finalists, replace long-time leaders Norwich and are now undefeated in 21 league matches.

“To go top, I think it means more to the fans and the club than it does to me and the players,” Frank said.

“We need to have done well to be up here and we have done well throughout the season and also in the last 21 games.

“But we know that all we want to do is to win the next game. We have to work even harder and have an extreme focus every day.

“We must not get carried away. We must just focus on tomorrow and then on to the next week.

“I don’t think that other teams will change their approach to us.

“All teams have to play for something, either to get as high in the table as possible or to avoid relegation. And they need good results as well.

“You could see that against Reading. They put up a top performance out there and that’s one of the best that we have faced this season.

“They really came flying at us in the first half. That was so impressive and they made it very difficult for us.”

Reading are seven points off the automatic promotion places still have their own hopes of promotion despite losing their unbeaten seven-match run.

“It was a fantastic game,” Reading manager Veljko Paunovic said. “It was a fantastic first half and very good second half also.

“Until we conceded the second goal in the second half, we had again put in a solid performance.

“I am very disappointed to lose because of the effort of all the players and the team.

“When we took the lead, that was very important. And we also had other opportunities to score.

“Against top teams like Brentford, you just have to score more goals.

“It’s something that we missed out on and we could have used that to our advantage in the second half.

“In the end, we were just too predictable. We looked to get more forward, we looked to get more possession. Unfortunately, we couldn’t be consistent with that.

“When we conceded the second goal, it was very hard for our guys. But I’m still very proud of them because we fought right to the end.”

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