Bees boss Frank defiant after derby loss

Brentford boss Thomas Frank remained defiant after his promotion-chasing team suffered a second successive defeat.

QPR came from behind to beat them 2-1 in the west London derby after Ivan Toney had put the Bees ahead.

On-loan West Brom duo Sam Field and Charlie Austin scored in the space of four second-half minutes to turn the match on its head.

It came three days after a home loss to Barnsley ended Brentford’s 21-game unbeaten league run.

But Frank said: “The important message to get out is that if anyone had told us at the beginning of the season that we’d be in this position, with 57 points, I think we would have said ‘Yes, we’ll take that’.

“I’m aware we can lose the next one every single time because this league is so even.

“I showed only one clip to the players after the Barnsley game, which we lost to a team that was just a tiny bit better than us.

“The clip I showed was in the 94th minute when we had eight players sprinting back from a corner.

“If you have that mentality, work-rate and togetherness you will be absolutely fine.”

Second-placed Brentford’s wobble is bound to come under scrutiny given that two defeats – including one against Barnsley – at the end of last season cost them promotion and they then lost in the play-off final to Fulham.

Frank added: “Of course we’re disappointed by losing two games. But this is football. The Championship is not Manchester City, Liverpool or Bayern Munich running away with it.

“The difference between teams is so small and if you’re on the wrong side of fine margins you can lose a game.

“That happened today. We need to learn from it and we need to move forward.”