Dean Smith felt Brentford lost too many individual battles as Queens Park Rangers ran out comfortable 3-0 winners in the West London derby at Loftus Road this afternoon. Junior Hoilett curled Rangers into the lead ten minutes before the break and a quickfire double from Sebastian Polter and Tjaronn Chery put the game to bed midway through the second-half. The closest The Bees came was a Ryan Woods shot that hit the post at 1-0 and a late Konstantin Kerschbaumer effort brilliantly saved by Alex Smithies.
Speaking to Bees Player after the match Dean felt that his side lacked quality, especially after going 2-0 behind. “I am disappointed for the supporters because they came in their numbers for a big local derby,” said Dean. “For me the game hinged on the second goal. I thought there was a foul: the lads are adamant and watching it back it certainly looked like a foul. Nedum Onuoha gets nowhere near the football, they break and score. After that we lacked a bit of confidence and discipline. It is also always hard to get back from two goals down as well.
“We were well in it in the first-half. We changed the system and had Alan Judge up front and I thought we worked the ball really well. Sergi Canos was a threat and we hit the post but we felt that they would be a threat on the counter-attack as I saw in the week against Derby County. Little things aren’t dropping for us at the moment but we can’t use them as excuses. We have to sort our own little battles out. We lacked a little bit of quality at times and that was the telling factor.”
Alan Judge was deployed as a striker for the visit to Loftus Road with Alan McCormack coming in to replace Marco Djuricin in the midfield. Dean explained the reasoning behind that switch saying: “At the moment Alan Judge looks our most likely goalscorer and it was an opportunity to get him higher up the pitch. We wanted to get him in and around Clint Hill who would find it tough against him. I played at centre-half and I wouldn’t like Alan Judge playing against me. Lasse Vibe and Marco Djuricin aren’t having a great time at the moment. Philipp Hofmann got injured in training during the week so it is a system that helped us to get Alan McCormack on the pitch as well. We need that little bit of experience at the moment and he certainly helps us.”
The loan window shuts in just under two weeks and Dean feels it would give the squad a boost if The Bees could bring in some fresh faces.
“All the games are important at the moment because we are on a run where we haven’t got many points and the bottom three are getting closer,” said Dean. “For us it is about putting in a performance at home against Blackburn Rovers and getting a win. All we can do is keep working hard. We changed up the team and the system today and we might need to get some personnel in on loan as well. It would give everyone a boost to get people in. I sensed when we worked on the system on Thursday that the lads were really looking forward to the game today. Little things like that can engage the players and get them moving forwards.”
Brentford were backed by more than 3,000 visiting fans this afternoon at Loftus Road with Dean thanking them for their great support. Dean hopes that the fans will give the same great backing next Saturday at Griffin Park as the team looks to end a four game losing run with the visit of Blackburn.
“The fans were brilliant and stuck behind us,” said Dean. “They were certainly the nosier fans until the second goal went in. We are disappointed because it would have nice to get the double over the local rivals. They have a massive part to play at Griffin Park next Saturday. They have been behind us since I have been here. They can see where we are at as a team at the moment and their backing is really pleasing for everyone. It would be a great boost to get a win next Saturday and one that we need. We thought that we had turned a corner with the win over Wolverhampton Wanderers but our inconsistencies have been there for all to see. Our focus is always the next game. We have ten big games to come and the sooner that we can get a couple of wins the better.”
Bees Player subscribers can watch the full interview with Dean below