Thomas Frank said he understood the frustration of Tottenham’s travelling fans after his side were booed following the goalless draw at his former club Brentford.
Frank, who managed the Bees for seven years and 317 games, guiding them to promotion in 2021, was making his first trip back to west London since joining Spurs in the summer.
He received a warm reception as he strode out on to the pitch and applauded all four sides of his old ground before kick-off.
But that was about as good as it got for the Dane with Spurs not managing a single effort on target until stoppage time and their fans chanting, ‘boring, boring Tottenham’ towards the end of a dour encounter.
“The positive is we were going here against a very good home team who you need to respect, and keeping them at a low amount of chances. I think that’s a very strong defensive performance,” he said.
“The amount of unforced errors is the biggest negative. We made too many mistakes. When we were up there we lacked the cutting edge on the day.
“It seems (the fans) are not too satisfied and that’s fair. Not a top performance but overall it’s two-sided; acknowledge the defensive side of the game, but of course the offensive side needs to be better.”
Spurs created one half-chance during a stinker of a first half, when Bees captain Nathan Collins blocked Archie Gray’s header with his shoulder.
Brentford dominated after the break with Guglielmo Vicario making a fine save from Yehor Yarmolyuk’s header and Igor Thiago blazing their best opportunity over the crossbar.
Tottenham’s one shot on target came at the death, but Richarlison’s finish was as lame as his team’s performance as it flew into the arms of Bees keeper Caoimhin Kelleher.
The stalemate brought to an end Tottenham’s 137-game run in the Premier League without a goalless draw.
It also kept the Bees, tipped to struggle after set-piece coach Keith Andrews replaced Frank and lost a host of key players into the bargain, in ninth place, a point and three places above Spurs.
Andrews was not surprised to see Vicario booked for time-wasting with 20 minutes left to play – “it should have come earlier,” he said – and felt Cristian Romero should have been sent off for bringing down Thiago as he raced towards goal.
“I thought we edged it in the second half, for sure, and if any team was going to win it, it was us,” he added.
“The way they were playing. slowing the game down… but Thomas knows this club better than I do and he’s very aware of what can happen here.
“It’s a very dangerous place to come and play so he was respectful of the environment we can create here.”
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