Kevin O’Connor bemoaned his side’s slow start as they suffered their first defeat in eight matches after a 3-2 loss against Sheffield United at Jersey Road this afternoon.
The Bees, who came into the game on the back of a five match winning run, found themselves 2-0 down inside 20 minutes after goals from Jake Wright and CJ Hamilton. Courtney Senior pulled one back before the break but Brentford’s task was made more difficult when Josh Laurent was sent off five minutes after the break.
Wright added his second midway through the second-half and despite a late Jan Holldack goal The Bees couldn’t find a way back into the game. Speaking to Bees Player after the match Kevin said his team’s trouble with slow starts is something that they have to address.
“It was very frustrating this afternoon,” said Kevin. “We were very poor in the first 20 minutes as we have been in a few games recently. It seems to take something going against us, like a goal, for us to start playing. They scored twice in that period and then we slowly came into the game but the start was nowhere near good enough. There is plenty that we can work on at this level even after victories. We start so slow and that is what we need to work on. We are going to look back on this, which we have been doing previously. I thought that we had cracked it after the Reading match but we have gone back to square one again now.”
Kevin O’Connor’s side had been unbeaten in seven going into the match and had won their last five, including a 2-1 Premier League Cup victory over Category One side Reading last Friday.
However Kevin admits his side could have no complaints about this afternoon’s defeat even if he felt the red card handed out to Josh Laurent for a confrontation with goalscorer Wright was harsh.
“It was even more frustrating coming off the back of a good result and performance against Reading last Friday,” said Kevin. “We got one back and started to look ok but then we lost a man at the start of the second-half. I have had a look at it and it is one of those that can go either way which is disappointing. With ten men it was always going to be difficult but full credit to Sheffield United. They did well and were good on the counter-attack. They looked strong and deserved their win.”
The Bees have made a habit in recent weeks of salvaging games late on after scoring four goals in the final 12 minutes to beat Watford last Monday just two weeks after scoring twice in injury time to beat Crystal Palace.
Despite their man disadvantage Kevin said he always believed that his side could find a way back into the match.
“After going down to ten men we had to stay in the game for the next five or ten minutes and then try to fight our way back in after that,” said Kevin. “To concede straight from a corner shouldn’t really happen because the extra man doesn’t change anything. After the last few weeks we definitely believed that we could get something. Jan scored a terrific individual goal but it was just too late for us to try and get an equaliser.”
Bees Player subscribers can listen to the full interview below