Alex Pritchard said Brentford’s first half performance in their Sky Bet Championship win against Cardiff City on Saturday was “unbelievable”.
The Bees won 3-2 in South Wales on Saturday, their seventh win in their last eight Sky Bet Championship matches.
They raced in to a 3-0 lead before 35 minutes had elapsed as Alex scored the first and then set up goals for Andre Gray and Jota.
Cardiff hit back after the restart, scoring within five minutes and then pulling another back to set up a thrilling last 15 minutes.
But The Bees did enough to get over the line and head in to Christmas third in the table.
Alex, speaking to Bees Player after the win, said Brentford went looking for the three points and getting them was most important thing.
But he admitted there was some disappointment with the second half.
“We spoke before the game and many teams would come to Cardiff and look for a point,” said the midfield player.
“But with our form, we had to come here and get all three.
“We did that today and that is the main thing.
“A game of two halves sums it up.
“We could have been 5-0 up in the first half but we spoke at half time about keeping our performance at the same level.
“We wanted to keep the high line, keep getting in the pockets and punishing them.
“That didn’t happen in the second half.
“Our work rate was good and defending was good but we were sloppy on the ball and our movement wasn’t good enough.
“We came in at full time with three points but everyone was down.
“We got three points and that is all that matters and we go home happy but we were disappointed.
“We were unbelievable in the first half.
“They couldn’t get near us, we were a level above.
“But the second half wasn’t good enough.
“We held on and to come to a place like Cardiff and get all three points is brilliant.”
Alex said Brentford had planned for Cardiff to play the 4-4-2 system they started the game with.
Alex played in the centre of an attacking midfield three behind Gray and, along with Jota and Alan Judge, pulled the home side apart when found by Toumani Diagouraga and Jonathan Douglas.
“We spoke about the way they would play with two in the middle of midfield,” he said.
“We knew if I could get in the pockets the centre halves wouldn’t follow, and if they did we would get Andre in.
“We knew if Toums and Dougie could get on the ball and find me, it would be dangerous.
“That worked out in the first half.”
Alex was involved in all three goals.
He scored the first from 20 yards, picking up a Jota lay off, and then fed Gray to run through and score the second.
The third came when Alex ran most of the length of the pitch before slipping it to Jota, the Spaniard curled the ball in to the top corner from the edge of the penalty area.
“My goal came when I had space on the edge of the box,” Alex told Bees Player.
“I was going to hit it first time but [Peter] Whittingham was closing me down.
“So I took a touch and it ended up in the bottom corner.
“Andre scored the second, I got in the pocket on to a second ball, played him through and he took it brilliantly.
“For the third I got the ball at right back and no-one closed me down.
“I thought ‘why not?’ and just ran with it.
“I went about 60 yards and Jota put it in the top corner.”
Brentford have taken 40 points from their first 22 games and are just two points off the top of the table.
Alex is on loan from Tottenham Hotspur for the season and has played 22 games, starting 20, scoring four goals, and said it was brilliant to be part of what was happening at Griffin Park.
He said The Bees would go to win every game and there was no reason they couldn’t join Tottenham in the Premier League.
Brentford’s next game is against Ipswich Town, who are second, on Boxing Day, and Alex said The Bees would go out to win.
“It is brilliant to be part of,” he said.
“The football we play day-in-day-out on the training ground is not a lot different to at Tottenham.
“We work really hard at it.
“There are some big players there but when you see the football we play, why can’t we be in that league?
“We go to win every game and play our football.
“We will come unstuck sometimes but we will pick ourselves up and go again.
“We have Ipswich next and they are above us, let’s go and beat them.
“There is a leading pack and you want to stay with them.
“We are at home and we are good at home.
“It will be tough for them but it will be tough for us as well.
“We will go to play our football and hopefully we will get the points.”
A post-match video interview with Alex Pritchard is available here for Bees Player subscribers.