We deserved better – Dickov

AIR RAID . . . Matt Smith beats Leon Legge to a header.

ENCOURAGEMENT can be taken from giving Brentford a rough ride for their three points, says Athletic manager Paul Dickov.

He says the way his team pushed the Bees would on another day have earned a draw.

“We have got to take a lot of heart from the performance,” Dickov said. “They were on the rails at the end and with a bit of luck we would have nicked a point, which was the least we deserved if you look over the whole game.

“We started really brightly before we gave the ball away in a silly area and got punished from it.

“Sometimes you get away with it, but at the moment we are not quite getting the breaks.

“Towards the end of the game they were putting centre-halves on because they knew that we were piling on the pressure. And their goalkeeper (Simon Moore) made an unbelievable save from Matt Smith at the end.”

The latest defensive catastrophe Dickov refers to came from Jean-Yves Mvoto.

The stand-out performer for Athletic this season, Mvoto uncharacteristically attempted a wildly inaccurate floated pass out wide which landed at the feet of Brentford’s best player, Harry Forrester.

Forshaw finished off a slick move with a low left-footed finish beyond Dean Bouzanis to leave Athletic with only one win and six points from their first seven league games.

“When you come here, they are going to create chances. Brentford are a good team who are rightly expected to be up in the top six at the end of the season. But I felt we more than matched them.

“The one criticism I have is that for all the possession and crosses into the box, we didn’t really work their ‘keeper enough.

“In the game at Portsmouth, which we won, we didn’t play as well as we did here. We have to keep believing.”






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