Bees boss shrugs off Holloway’s comments after derby triumph

Brentford boss Dean Smith shrugged off pre-season criticism from QPR counterpart Ian Holloway after his side won the west London derby 3-1 at Griffin Park.

Prior to taking over at Loftus Road, Holloway worked as a television pundit and tipped the Bees to struggle, saying: “Brentford are regressing.

“Mark Warburton got them punching above their weight. They still haven’t replaced Andre Gray and Alan Judge will be missing for the start of the season. They could be in trouble.”

Two goals from Jota – the second a spectacular finish after he beat Jake Bidwell and Joel Lynch – helped the Bees to their first double over Rangers since 1965.

Smith said he was only thinking about Brentford fans rather than Holloway’s pre-season prediction.

He said: “People will always have opinions, you can’t stop that. All we can do is prove what we’re about by working hard every day in training.

“We know what we’re about, we get our heads down and get on with our jobs.

“[It was] a little bit of history, and certainly put a big smile on the faces of the supporters.”

Smith felt his side were worthy winners but still had misgivings about their performance, particularly the goal they conceded.

He added: “I thought we deserved the win, we just weren’t as clinical as we have been.

“We knew they were dangerous from set pieces, we didn’t want to give away many free-kicks and corners so we’re disappointed with the goal.”