Flemming Pedersen said it was important that Brentford didn’t lose Monday’s derby with Queens Park Rangers despite dominating in the 0-0 draw at Jersey Road. The Bees have been guilty of conceding some soft goals in recent weeks and Flemming was pleased that they managed to stay solid defensively even though they failed to take a number of good chances in the stalemate.
“It should have been more than a point when we look at the chances,” said Flemming, speaking to Bees Player after the match. “We had some proper chances but when you can’t score then it is good that you don’t give away silly goals. They had a couple of chances where it could have looked like a silly goal but we dealt better with those situations today. The conditions got worse in the second-half where the pitch was bobbly. We needed too much time to control the ball and the play was not as fluid in the second-half as in the first-half.”
The Bees started the game on the front foot and created a number of fine chances in the first-half. Kyjuon Marsh-Brown and Herson Rodrigues Alves both brought smart saves out of Joe Lumley in the visitors' goal early on. Alves missed a close-range header with Bradley Clayton, Josh Clarke and Scott Hogan also going close. After the match Flemming said he was especially pleased with the variation in his side’s play and the chances that they then created.
“I was pleased with most of our early football because we had variation in our play: we played in behind and in front of their back four,” said Flemming. “We made some good decisions and created some good chances. We had some chances after cutbacks and we had two one-on-ones alone with the keeper where we unfortunately couldn’t score.”
The experienced Danish coach has been in charge of the Development Squad since the start of the year and believes that he has seen signs of real progress from his team in recent matches.
“We are seeing the boys getting more comfortable in every game,” said Flemming. “At this level when we have one or two players from the first-team they can bring in a little power and help the boys. Against Millwall in our last game we had seven new positions so we had a little problem with the fluidity in our play. Today we saw that fluidity because we had players in their normal positions.”
Bees Player subscribers can watch the full interview with Flemming below