Don’t panic

Adeyemi puts defeat into perspective
ON-LOAN midfielder Tom Adeyemi wants to focus on the bigger picture following the disappointing Brentford defeat.

Athletic lost 2-0 as Bees boss Uwe Rosler got one over on his good friend Paul Dickov at Boundary Park.

A trip south to Exeter City is next up for Dickov and his men on Saturday and Adeyemi hopes that a first reverse in a month doesn’t have a knock-on effect.

“Brentford came here and continued their good form,” said the Norwich City player, who had not before experienced defeat in an Athletic shirt.

“But while everyone has been talking about how well they have been doing, we would have gone above them with a win on Saturday.

“We need to put it into perspective. We have lost one in the last five and most teams would take that in this division.

“We need to learn from it but also put it behind us, so that we can be nice and confident about the Exeter game.”

Adeyemi also brushed off any suggestion that playing at Boundary Park — scene of just one home victory in the last 15 games — is proving difficult for the players compared to away trips.

“Every game is 90 minutes of football, whether you are at home or away,” he added. “If anything, we should be stronger at home with the crowd behind us.

“The problem was that not enough players won their individual battles. If that is the case, you will struggle to win a game.

“We just never really got going. In the last four games, we have done well and gone through unbeaten.

“And then, we undid most of our good work with our performance.

“I don’t think you can say we weren’t mentally right, as we go into every game trying to do our best.

“Every now and then, you have to put it down to being one of those days.

“At the same time, we have to look at how we conceded the goals we did and why we didn’t score any.

“We need to go again (against Exeter) and make sure we are right back to where we were before.”

The Brentford game was Athletic winger Chris Taylor’s 250th appearance in all competitions for his home-town club.

The 24-year-old could, at the current rate, break the all-time club record of 525 league showings held by Ian Wood.

“If I stay here for my whole career, I’d like to think so,” said Taylor. “It is ‘ifs and buts’ at the moment and a long way away. I am just pleased to have played that many games so far.”