“Brave” is how Keith Andrews described Brentford’s performance in Saturday’s defeat at Manchester City and he was certainly right.
What he did not mention was how “brave” he was in team selection, with a formation and player switch he had not used before.
Full-back Aaron Hickey made his first start since February after injury but not in the backline. Instead, the Scotland international played in an unfamiliar defensive midfield role as the Bees fielded a new 4-4-2 line-up.
And for large parts of the game it worked.
City almost inevitably dominated early on but Brentford defended brilliantly, in no small part due to our formation – leading to City being booed off after a goalless first half.
Having weathered the storm, we were more adventurous in the second half, but in the end conceded an opener to the brilliant Jeremy Doku. I have rarely seen such a good individual performance against us as his.
At 2-0 the game was over, but I thought 3-0 was a harsh final score, given the effort we put in, the decent chances we made and the big decisions which didn’t go our way.
What was encouraging was the fact that, as usual, we didn’t give up, everyone gave their all and City only scored after feeling forced into making a double substitution on the hour mark after failing to break through.
We came away from the Etihad proud of Brentford’s performance.
Hickey’s return was good news for Scotland boss Steve Clarke before this summer’s World Cup and England’s Thomas Tuchel will also have been pleased to see the return of Jordan Henderson after an injury lay-off.
Although Brighton earned a six-goal swing over us and Bournemouth also won, incredibly we are still in the hunt for Europe.
Two big and exciting weekends remain.
Find more from Ian Westbrook at Beesotted podcast
