Lilywhites sting Bees with a comeback

Sunday was an action packed day of football and Brentford vs Preston proved why it’s never over ’till the old lady sings.

Brentford looked to be coasting to a comfortable win at half time leading 2-0, but the Lilywhites scored four goals in an astonishing 18 minutes to leave the hosts shell shocked and wondering where it all went wrong.

New signing Ivan Toney bagged his second and third goals of the season. His second goal exemplified everything Brentford have been about in recent years. Sergi Canos spectacular long ball from his own half showed why he was once part of the infamous La Masia academy as he released Bryan Mbuemo who put Toney through on goal to slot it away calmly.

Scott Sinclair’s brace helped Preston to get on level terms and that was followed up by strikes from Brad Potts and Sean Maguire to seal their first win of the season after what has been a poor start. 

 ‘At half-time sometimes you need to repair something,’ said Neil. But the performance wasn’t that bad, there were things to brush up on, care and detail’, said Alex Neil.

Just where did it go wrong for the Bees? Going forward they looked as good as ever but a defence which boasted the second best record in the league last season raised some eyebrows. They were second to every challenge and looked to be reactive rather than proactive.

The intensity and pressure that Preston played with didn’t help either. When given time and space, Brentford can be devastating as seen through out last season when they scored 80 goals, a league high, but they can at times lack the physicality to match the fluid football which they often get praised for. 

They should have perhaps looked or still be looking to bring in a centre-back or two in the transfer window. Ethan Pinnock and captain Pontus Jansson are the only two established seniors centre-halves at the club and with lack of competition comes complacency. We’re only four games in to the season so any criticism at the moment could be pre-mature especially with Brentford’s history of poor starts to the season but if they are to challenge for promotion again this season, they’ll have to tighten up at the back sooner rather than later.

Post-match, Thomas Frank himself was unable to comprehend what he had seen. He said:

You’re 2-0 up and have been so good defensively, then it just goes bang!’. ‘For whatever reason it just happened. The tiny details just go wrong.’

But he was confident that this is a one-off incident:

‘Reminds me of the horror shows in my early days (at the club), I’m sure its a one off i see why not.’

 

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