Dean Smith felt that this afternoon’s match at Griffin Park against Blackburn Rovers was one that his side should never have lost. After an even first-half the match swung in The Bees favour on the hour as Grant Hanley was sent off for a second yellow card. However Brentford couldn’t find a way through the disciplined Rovers defence and were then hit by a sucker punch late on when Shane Duffy smashed home from 12 yards after a free-kick wasn’t cleared.
Speaking to Bees Player after the match Dean said: “That was a massively disappointing afternoon as it was a game that we should never have lost. Once Blackburn went down to ten men it was one way traffic but we never worked their goalkeeper and we made poor decisions when we did have good chances. The one thing I said to the players after the game was that if we didn’t win the game we can’t lose it. It was poor defending from us: I am not sure if it was a free-kick in the first place but it was poor defending and we ended up losing the game from that.
“We need more quality in the final third at the moment, we are not scoring enough goals at the moment and we have been conceding an awful lot of silly goals as well. We spoke about being organised behind the ball and being hard to beat, which we were, but that didn’t make for a great game. There was no flow to the game until their player got sent off and then there only looked one winner but we gave away another poor goal. They only had three up and we had six back to deal with it.”
The defeat means that The Bees go into the upcoming international break on the back of a four match losing run that has left them six points above the Sky Bet Championship relegation zone. Dean believes that responsibility for the run of form rests with him and the players and that it is also their responsibility to put it right through hard work.
“We have to turn this around by working hard on the training ground,” said Dean. “Leandro Rodriguez has come in and Scott Hogan is coming back so we have some fresh players coming back. It is only myself, the coaching staff and the players who can turn this around. The break gives us a chance to go and work on a few things that we need to. We need to make some decisions to put things right. Four lads will go off on international duty and it is up to us to make sure we work hard so that when we go to Nottingham Forest we get a win.”
John Swift was not included in the matchday squad and Dean had this update on the reason behind his omission. “John Swift wasn’t going to play anyway but I was made aware of the posts on Social Media,” said Dean. “I know that he took it down straight away and that no malice was meant but he has made a mistake. As soon as you press that enter button it is gone. I am disappointed because he is a bright lad but that was the reason I didn’t put him on the bench.”
Bees Player subscribers can watch the full interview with Dean below