Daniel Farke hails fighting spirit as Norwich clinch late Brentford point

Posted Wednesday, October 28, 2020 by PA

Daniel Farke felt Norwich deserved their slice of luck after Kenny McLean’s late strike secured a 1-1 Sky Bet Championship draw at Brentford.

The Canaries were trailing to a first-half Ivan Toney goal, his eighth in six league matches.

But for the fourth match running, Norwich struck with time running out as McLean’s deflected shot salvaged a point.

City boss Farke said: “All in all that’s a good point on the road. Brentford are one of the favourites for promotion, so to be there with a late equaliser, it’s always a good point.

“I’m still not 100 per cent happy. We could have gone for it more in the first half. Our pressing could have been more intense. We were a bit scared and showed a bit too much respect.

“But I was pleased we found a way to fight back into the game and found an equaliser. I’m pleased with our mentality and team spirit. There’s no doubt it was a deserved point for us.

“I don’t believe in coincidences. Our late goals come from good fitness, also our game, the way we exhaust our opponents. A great mentality, a winning mentality, and team spirit.”

Norwich should have opened the scoring after a superb piece of trickery from Emi Buendia.

The Argentinian gave Henrik Dalsgaard the slip and put Ethan Pinnock on his backside inside the area, but saw his shot from six yards tipped over by Bees goalkeeper David Raya.

But it was the Bees who took the lead after a lightning counter-attack from their new-look strikeforce.

Ollie Watkins and Said Benrahma may have departed but their replacements, Toney and Saman Ghoddos, still combined with Bryan Mbeumo to devastating effect.

Ghoddos burst forward before feeding Mbeumo, who reached the byline before cutting the ball across goal for Toney to slide home.

After the break Brentford were denied a second when Toney’s header back across goal found Dalsgaard right in front of goal but the defender’s finish was too close to Krul.

That proved decisive with three minutes remaining when McLean’s speculative drive was going wide until it deflected off Mads Bech Sorensen, wrongfooting Raya as it rolled into the net.

Bees boss Thomas Frank said: “I think we performed well, played a very good game and I’m pleased with how we pressed Norwich in the second half.

“We had the chances. But it was decisive that we couldn’t score the 2-0 goal. And a goal like theirs is very random. I’d rather they’d put one into the top corner.

“But the positive is it was a good performance, played with good intensity, a game of two teams who like to dominate on the ball – and I think we came out slightly on top.”