Defeat ‘brutal’ but Fulham were better team, Frank admits

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Thomas Frank admitted Fulham were the better side after the Whites’ dramatic derby win over Brentford. 

A stoppage-time double from Harry Wilson earned Fulham all three points after Vitaly Janelt had put Frank’s men ahead against the run of play.

Brentford struggled to create chances but a resolute defensive display looked to have secured them a first away league win of the season – until Wilson struck.

“Of course, it’s brutal,” said head coach Frank.

“The better team won, but when leading 1-0 away from home in the 93rd minute, and we don’t see the two goals and big chance to us that happened [afterwards], we see out the last four or five minutes winning 1-0 then everyone praises us for the defending which I still think was fantastic.

“The principles, the character, the mentality was unbelievable. Sometimes when you can’t hit your [performance] level you need to work hard, and I think the boys did that when they were throwing everything at us.

“It was an unbelievable touch from Wilson [for the equaliser] that 100 times out of 100 I would take again and it wouldn’t go in the back of the net from that position and that angle.”

Before Wilson headed in the winner, former Fulham midfielder Fabio Carvalho was denied from clos -range at the other end by keeper Bernd Leno.

The chance was part of a frenetic end to the game, with both teams pushing for a decisive goal.

Frank said: “When they scored [the equaliser], I liked that we went hard and had a big chance where we could have won it.

“We need to keep emotions out of it but on the other hand it’s impossible because there were so many good things today.

“If you look at the [Carvalho] situation, we still had an extra man defending so I’m more than happy to take a risk.

“I say all the time that if you don’t risks then you are taking a risk. Today it could have given us three points instead of only one, I know we lost in the end, but hopefully that pays off over time.”