Egan hails Bees ‘magician’ but says defending must improve

John Egan admitted Brentford should have defended better in their 4-2 victory over Rotherham at Griffin Park.

The Bees led twice against the Championship’s bottom side, but conceded equalisers to Aymen Belaid and Anthony Forde before hat-trick hero Jota wrapped up the points in injury time.

Despite the win, Dean Smith’s team have now recorded just one shut-out in their last nine games and centre-back Egan told West London Sport: “Clean sheets are our bread and butter and I feel we probably should have had one today. We gave away a couple of goals we shouldn’t have done.

“We’re working on that, trying to be more solid. We know we can score goals – if we can keep them out on a consistent basis then we’ll be a very hard team to beat.

“I think in the first half we played very well and should have built on our one-goal lead, but in the Championship you need to push on and take your chances.

“There’s always a chance the other team can get back into it and Rotherham made it difficult for us.

“After we got the second goal, we thought we could push on again and the same thing happened; they equalised with a shot from a way out.”

Jota put Brentford ahead in the 13th minute, but Belaid headed the Millers’ first equaliser midway through the second half before Nico Yennaris restored the home side’s lead.

Forde’s 25-yard strike with three minutes remaining appeared to have earned Rotherham a point – but the Bees’ Spanish midfielder scored twice in injury time, the first of them a penalty after Semi Ajayi’s handball.

Egan added: “The magician Jota’s a great player – he’s come back in January and been absolutely brilliant, so I’m delighted he got the hat-trick.

“To get two goals in the last few minutes is very satisfying. We showed great character, at the end of the day it’s a win and sometimes it doesn’t matter how they come.”