Boss hails ‘outstanding’ Bees defending

Brentford boss Mark Warburton hailed his side’s “outstanding” defensive performance after they held off a second-half fightback to beat Reading 3-1.

Goals from Jota and Alex Pritchard gave the Bees a half-time lead but they needed a late Jonathan Douglas header to seal victory after Simon Cox pulled one back just after the break.

“It’s a very pleasing result. To a man, defensively we were outstanding today,” Warburton said.

“They’re a very good team with a lot of quality. We felt they were going to go 4-3-3 to match us up but then they went 4-4-2 and more direct in the second half, and we had to deal with that.

“I don’t mean just long ball. They’ve got a lot of quality in what they do. We chatted after the game about whether we could have taken care of the ball better and yes we could.

“But if we’re looking for criticism after beating Reading 3-1 then we’re good shape.”

The win moved Brentford up to 10th in the Championship and just for points from the top of the table, but perhaps more importantly the Bees are 10 points above the drop zone.

And Warburton said: “People say ‘you must be delighted about where you are’, and we are.

“But looking at the season, we look back and feel hard done by because decisions that have gone against us in previous games. If you look at that three or four points we’d be in good shape.

“This group of players will keep on pushing and are demanding of themselves. If we drop that then we’re in trouble.”

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