Yahoo Finance Brentford have ‘massive belief’ they can come from behind to reach Playoff final, says Thomas Frank
Thomas Frank says the experience of last season gives Brentford “massive belief” that they can again overturn a semi-final first-leg deficit to reach the Championship Playoff Final, as he was left furious by the absence of VAR once more.
The Bees were beaten 1-0 by Bournemouth at the Vitality Stadium last night, with Arnaut Danjuma’s breakaway goal giving Jonathan Woodgate’s side a slender advantage ahead of Saturday’s second leg in west London.
The result means Frank’s men will have to do things the hard way to keep their promotion dream alive, just as they did a year ago, when they came from a goal down at the midway point to beat Swansea 3-2 on aggregate and book a trip to Wembley.
“It’s like we’re going into the second half one-down, there’s plenty of time to turn it around, Frank said. “We know we have 90 minutes to do that and that will be more than enough time. Bournemouth know it’s not done. We’ll be ready and we’ll come flying out.
“[The Swansea game] is an experience we can use. We know it’s going to be another tight game with small margins but we know what we need to do.
“There’s massive belief, massive belief in there. We’re ready to fly on Saturday.”
Ahead of the tie, Frank had once again called for VAR - which is not in use during the regular Championship season - to be brought in for the playoffs, given the magnitude of the games.
Last season, the Bees had their task against Swansea made harder by a controversial red card for Rico Henry, which was subsequently rescinded on appeal, and here the Dane felt certain his side should have been awarded an early penalty when Adam Smith clumsily challenged Tariqe Fosu.
“One-hundred percent a penalty,” Frank added. “Another good example of why there should be VAR in these games. The small margins that you need to have with you in these semi-finals.
“I’m not talking about us losing the game because of that, we need to do better, but this is one of these situations I’m talking about, not a maybe handball. No, our player touched the ball, clear contact in the penalty box, that’s a clear penalty.
“It’s these situations we need to get bang on. I think we’re only playing for about £170m.”
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