Andrews wants happy end to ‘special season’ – and defends Schade decision

Keith Andrews hopes a “special” season for Brentford ends in qualification for Europe.

The Bees came back twice to draw 2-2 against Crystal Palace, despite being far from their best.

Dango Ouattara scored both their goals and his late equaliser rescued a potentially crucial point.

They are currently eighth in the Premier League table and will face Liverpool at Anfield next Sunday in their final match of the campaign.

“I think it shows it has been a special season which can be even more special next week,” said head coach Andrews.

“We need to play well against a very good (Liverpool) side and better than we played today. We need to perform and that will be key next week.”

The Irishman acknowledged that a point was a reasonable outcome given that Brentford were below par in their penultimate game.

“I wanted us to do anything to try and win and empty ourselves,” he said.

“We didn’t play as well today as we have done in recent weeks but we showed a lot of resilience and character.

“The first half an hour we didn’t quite get to terms. Palace overloaded us.

“The performance levels weren’t at the level and I own that. It wasn’t the pressure of the game, and sometimes you have to understand players aren’t robots and they make mistakes.

“The only thing you can guarantee is that they will give everything.”

Andrews defended his decision to drop Kevin Schade to the bench.

“Some of our players can only play a certain amount of minutes so you need a natural balance,” he explained.

“Kevin played well last weekend and could have scored twice. Dango was unfortunate to miss out against Man City so today I felt it was the right team.

“It definitely felt like a big goal from him to equalise today.”