Tony Craig hailed Brentford’s Sky Bet League One win over Leyton Orient as “a great team performance” but said he expected the East London side to respond strongly.
Brentford beat their promotion rivals 1-0 yesterday afternoon, their first away win against Orient since 1995.
Marcello Trotta scored the only goal of the game in first half stoppage time and Brentford played most of the second half with ten men after James Tarkowski was sent off for two bookable offences.
Tony, who captained the team, said to keep a clean sheet – only the third time Orient have failed to score in their 2013/14 league campaign – showed how well Brentford had played.
The Bees have climbed to second in League One, two points ahead of Orient with two games in hand, but Tony said he expected the East London side to fight for promotion until the very end of the season.
“This is a great three points today, and a great team performance,” said the central defender.
“There was a great reaction in the dressing room but I am going to be boring, this is just another three points.
“We will enjoy tonight.
“We have Monday off now so we will come in on Tuesday and concentrate on the next game.
“They are a very good side and they will bounce back from this.
“They will push us on the way.
“Thankfully we took points off them today.
“We just wanted the points today, the performance didn’t really matter.
“To get a clean sheet as well, that shows it was a great team performance.”
Tony said Orient played well but Brentford matched them.
He said Brentford had worked on how to combat the hosts and did it well.
“We knew what Leyton Orient would do,” said Tony.
“They are a lot more than just a long ball side.
“They play some good stuff, they attack well and they are a good, honest, hard-working team.
“They played a great game today and thankfully we matched them.
“Their strikers are one of their strengths.
“We worked on that in training.
“They have some very good players but we got the points and they will push us the whole way.”
Tony said it was the sort of game where the first goal would be crucial and he was thankful Brentford got it.
Brentford got their goal when Marcello Trotta picked up an Adam Forshaw back heel and smashed it in from 20 yards.
“This seems to be the sort of game where one goal wins,” said Tony.
“Thankfully we got it today.
“That sort of goal is what Marcello is all about.
“He is a great finisher and it landed at the right person at the right time.
“From behind, it looked like a great finish.”
James Tarkowski was sent off early in the second half.
He had been booked before half time for a foul on Scott Cuthbert and then lunged in on Romain Vincelot just after the break.
Tony said when the sending off came he knew he had to concentrate and keep Orient out, which would give The Bees the win.
He said he relished the central defensive competition with James Tarkowski and Harlee Dean that now existed at the Club.
“Red cards are part and parcel of football,” said Tony.
“I just had to concentrate, we were 1-0 up and we had to try and carry on to get the clean sheet.
“We managed to do it.
“Harlee is a very good player, James is too.
“We have good competition.
“As a player you should thrive under pressure of competition.
“There won’t be many teams in this league with three great centre halves like we have.
“Those who have the shirts will have to work hard to keep hold of them.”
Tony also paid tribute to the Brentford fans at the match.
More than 2,500 were in attendance and Tony said they were “fantastic”.
“The fans were tremendous,” said Tony.
“As players we want to give them a lot of credit.
“You could hear them from first minute to last.
“They were fantastic.
“Thankfully we have them the result they were after.
“Hopefully they went home happy.”
A full post-match interview with Tony Craig is available here for Bees Player subscribers.