Brentford Manager Uwe Rösler described his team’s first half performance in their 2-1 win over Crawley Town as “excellent”.
The Bees beat the Sussex side, who started the day third in npower League One, with Clayton Donaldson scoring twice.
He gave Brentford an early lead but the visitors capitalised on a poor Shaleum Logan back pass to equaliser.
Clayton Donaldson grabbed the winner for Brentford, who were much improved after drawing 0-0 with Shrewsbury Town on Tuesday night.
Uwe, speaking to Bees Player after the game, said it was important not to get carried away after the win.
“We have to keep our feet on the ground,” he said.
“After the Shrewsbury result, where we maybe felt, before the game, that we will get three points, we learned our lesson.
“The first half today was excellent, against a very good team.
“They have very strong players, and players that can play.
“At times, the first half was excellent.
“In the second half, they had a bit of momentum in the first five minutes but we controlled it again.
“We had two or three big chances to get the killer goal but made a horrible error for their goal.
“That allowed them back in to the game.
“It was 50-50 in the second half, we had chances, they had chances.
“God bless, Clayton came up trumps again and we got the second goal.”
Clayton Donaldson grabbed his fifth and sixth of the season against Crawley and ended a run of six games without a goal in the process.
Uwe said he is confident Clayton will score goals this season and wanted to see his overall contribution up to previous high standards too.
In 2011/12, the striker scored 11 goals and contributed 16 assists.
“I was never concerned about the number of goals Clayton would score,” said Uwe.
“He will score more goals than last year.
“I was more concerned about what contributed in open play.
“Last year was magnificent; it has not been as good this year.
“He has been working on it.
“We addressed it, he took it on board and today he got his rewards.
“He plays the role we have set up in our system to perfection.
“He has to work the channels, wear out defenders and he will get rewards, either for himself or for someone else as defenders will make mistakes.”
Uwe chose Paul Hayes to partner Clayton Donaldson in attack as he felt the pair could exploit a weakness in Crawley’s system.
He said the game had shown that Brentford need to keep the ball to keep control of matches.
“We saw they had gaps between their central defenders and central midfield players and we wanted to play Paul Hayes in that hole,” said Uwe.
“We wanted him to get us playing and he did that very effectively.
“The midfield was instrumental and the way we defended was top class.
“First half, overall, was a very good team performance.
“I said we only get dominance when we keep the ball.
“We didn’t have it enough in the second half and we were forced to try and play Clayton in all the time.
“We lose the ball too quickly and allowed pressure by giving our opponents the ball.
“The lesson today is we have to keep the ball to control the game.”
The one sour note for The Bees was Farid El Alagui, who was taken off on a stretcher in the dying stages after coming on as a substitute.
“Farid is not so good,” said Uwe.
“His knee has swollen up.
“It’s too early to know what is wrong, his knee has swollen up straight away, we have to wait for it to go down and then we will scan it and see the result of the damage.
“I will keep my fingers crossed.”
The Bees face Crawley again on Tuesday, in a Johnstone’s Paint Trophy Southern Section Second Round tie.
“In terms of the amount of games for our squad, I see it as a very important cup competition,” said Uwe.
“There will be changes, we have a heavy schedule and the priority is the league.
“But I want to make it absolutely clear that we will take the competition seriously.
“We want to win, we want to go further.
“Other players will get games and can put pressure on those that are playing.
“We want to be successful on all fronts.”
Bees Player subscribers can see a full video interview with Uwe Rösler here.