Brentford after match inquest

In the aftermath of another home defeat, manager Ronnie Moore believes that the reduction of Brentford to 10 men had a negative effect on his team. He said, “Once they were down to 10 men, we stopped doing most of the good things which had helped us dominate the first half. All of a sudden it was long balls down the middle when we should have got the thing down and kept passing it. I don’t think we would have lost against 11 men because we were defending well and I couldn’t see Brentford getting through us. Sometimes the mental attitude can change when the opposition have a man sent off. You’ve got to cope with extra pressure from people who just expect you to go on and score. Players can also start thinking it’s easy. They can start to relax and believe they don’t have to focus too much on doing the right things. Before half-time especially, and for the first time in ages, we had crosses coming in from both wings, but then we started launching it 60 yards."

“That’s exactly what Brentford wanted because their centre-halves are happy if they come off with a migraine from heading the ball too much. I was shouting at our lads to stretch the play, use Andy Liddell and David Eyres out wide, get Brentford running around so we could tire them out, but we slowed down our tempo instead. In that respect we were naive, which sounds ridiculous when you’ve got the experience of Eyresie, Lidds, Richie Wellens and all the rest. We were huffing and puffing, and we conceded a bad goal. The cross should never have come in and I thought Chris Day (pictured) , who made a great save from the penalty, was beaten far too easily by a mis-hit shot."

“It’s disappointing to talk about another defeat, but the positive aspect is a marked improvement which I think the fans appreciated at the end. We had a horrible week after what happened at Barnsley, but everyone saw the lads put in a good, hard-working shift, although at times it was a bit naive. You couldn’t fault the attitude or commitment, and it was good to see a couple of players doing well in their first games for a while. It was a last-minute decision to play Danny Hall, but he looked solid considering he has been out injured for a long time. And Mark Hughes was immense in the first half. He got through a lot of work and was unlucky to hit the bar.”

It's going to be a difficult couple of months, all the teams coming up now are the teams that are going to be in or about the play off's, you cant afford to lose. You could say that you are expected to beat 10 men but it doesn't always work out that way. There are a lot of tough games and an awful lot of hard work to come."