Frank hails Watkins after Brentford’s derby triumph

Brentford boss Thomas Frank hailed Ollie Watkins after the forward scored twice in the 3-1 derby victory at QPR.

Watkins took his tally for the season to 10 as the Bees stormed to a third consecutive win. 

He drifted between centre-backs Grant Hall and Toni Leistner to head home a first-half opener and netted again in the final seconds.

Hall had equalised early in the second half but Said Benrahma put the visitors back in front with a penalty just before the hour mark.

Watkins has been outstanding since being deployed as an out-and-out striker following Neal Maupay’s summer departure for Brighton.

“I can only praise him for his work ethic – look how hard he works throughout the game,” said Frank.

“That’s a massive, big thing for us. We were pressing high constantly in the second half – chasing everything and keep on pushing up. His focus is on developing and wanting to get better.

“We’ve been working very hard with him to stay on the last line. The first goal was a clear example of that – we want him in between the two centre-backs. He’s doing that very well.

“I thought it was a clear, clear win. We had a lot of opportunities to score the 3-1 goal and we scored it in the end.”

Brentford have real momentum after recovering from a stuttering start to the season but Frank insisted they cannot afford to get carried away.

He said:  “Everybody in this league has big dreams and we also have big dreams, but we know it’s so important to keep humble and keep working extremely hard.

“There are loads of things we can still improve. I’d like us to control the game even more.”