Brentford Manager Mark Warburton hailed an “outstanding” first half performance and said his team would learn from the events of the second period as they beat Cardiff City yesterday.
The Bees raced in to a 3-0 lead in South Wales with Alex Pritchard, Andre Gray and Jota scoring inside the first 35 minutes.
But Cardiff hit back after half time and reduced the lead to 3-2 with 15 minutes remaining.
Brentford did enough to take the win and Mark, speaking after the match, said his side knew the game wasn’t finished at half time.
The Brentford boss admitted the loss of Jonathan Douglas at half time – to a calf problem – affected his team but he said replacement Jon Toral did very well.
Mark said his players got what they deserved and Brentford were worthy winners.
“We were outstanding in the first half,” said the Brentford boss.
“I was very pleased with the football we played and the quality of finishing.
“We also had another two or three very good chances.
“It got very open in the last ten to 15 minutes of the first half and maybe that was a clue for us for what was to come in the second half.
“Dougie had a slight calf injury and had to come off at half time.
“Jon did very well but that did make a difference, we missed Dougie’s experience, sitting in there.
“Cardiff are a high quality team packed with talented players, many who have played at Premier League level.
“We knew the onslaught would come.
“At the end, we have taken three points.
“We had fantastic support again and I hope three points made it worthwhile.”
Cardiff started with a 4-4-2 system and Brentford exploited it, using the space between the home side’s defence and midfield to good effect.
Mark said Brentford were pleased to see Cardiff had made four changes for the match specifically to deal with Gray and Moses Odubajo and his side found the holes and exploited them.
“We were pleased when we got the team sheet,” he said.
“They made changes in central defence to counter Andre’s pace, Fabio tried to push Moses back, Noone to deal with the overload in midfield.
“It sends a message to our players that they come here to a massive stadium, Premier League team last year and they are adapting to what we do.
“In the first half we found the holes and we created a load of chances.”
Brentford’s first came when Pritchard lashed in from 25 yards.
Pritchard then put Gray away to score the second before running 50 yards and finding Jota, who fired in to the top corner from the edge of the penalty box for the third.
Cardiff scored within five minutes of the restart to kick off a comeback and Mark said his team would learn from that.
“We scored three very good goals but we attacked well,” he said.
“We got forward, we got on the half turn, found units, split them.
“It would be disrespectful to say we did it at will but we played very well in the first half.
“But we knew the game wasn’t over at half time.
“We will learn from conceding the early goal.
“I am delighted the players got their rewards, we merited the three points.”
Cardiff played very direct at times, particularly after bringing Kenwyne Jones in to the game.
Mark said his side dealt with it well but gave Cardiff the impetus at times.
“We dealt with a physical presence again today,” he said.
“At every set piece they brought the big guys up and had good delivery.
“Kadeem Harris is tricky.
“That is a tough test against guys that were playing in the Premier League last year.
“We will learn from the second half.
“We will look at what we could have done better, could we have played higher, taken more care of the football.
“We gave them the impetus at times, hacking the ball away, getting bookings for time wasting.
“It got the crowd going and gave them belief.
“We have to avoid doing that.
“We had our backs to the wall at times, they have high quality players.”
Cardiff made a tactical change at half time, switching to a diamond midfield.
Mark said that gave his team a chance to use their width but they didn’t do it well enough.
“They switched to a diamond and that gave them an extra player in midfield but that gave us space out wide,” he said.
“We wanted to try and get the ball wide, switch it quickly.
“We did it at times, but not enough.
“The players are really disappointed with their second half performance but that says a lot about their character.
“They have come to Cardiff City, won the game and are disappointed we didn’t dominate the second half like the first.
“I can’t speak highly enough of them.”
Brentford will sit third in the Sky Bet Championship on Christmas Day.
Their next match will be on Boxing Day when Ipswich Town, one place above The Bees, will come to Griffin Park.
“On Boxing Day we get to the halfway stage, we will have played every team,” said Mark.
“There are no easy games but I am sure teams won’t want to play Brentford.
“If we maintain our random luck in terms of injuries and suspensions then we will be OK.”
Full post-match reaction from Mark Warburton is available here for Bees Player subscribers.