Thomas Frank hails Brentford’s ‘fantastic record’ after victory at Bournemouth

Thomas Frank praised Brentford’s “fantastic record” as they won a fifth away league game in succession for the first time since 2010 in a 2-1 Premier League comeback win at Bournemouth.

After Vitaly Janelt’s own goal had given Bournemouth the lead, the Bees hit back through Yoane Wissa in the first half before captain Christian Norgaard netted the winner in the second.

Frank said: “I thought it was a very good game, especially in the first half. Second half I thought Bournemouth started better. We scored a great, ugly goal from a long throw that won us the game.

“It’s a fantastic record, unbelievable. Now we just need to keep the away record and hopefully add five home wins.”

Bournemouth’s previous record against Brentford was not a cause for optimism. The last time they beat Saturday night’s opponents was in August 2014 in the Championship with Frank’s side unbeaten in all five of the top-flight games played between the clubs since then.

Bournemouth opened the scoring when Antoine Semenyo picked up the ball wide on the left and fed the overlapping Milos Kerkez, whose cross was deflected into his own net by Janelt.

The German had been trying to prevent the ball reaching Marcus Tavernier.

Brentford had been lively from the start and deservedly pulled level when DR Congo forward Wissa headed in Bryan Mbuemo’s cross from close range for his 14th league goal of the season, with home goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga caught in no man’s land.

That is how it stayed until half-time but straight after the restart, Semenyo crashed a header against the crossbar from Justin Kluivert’s cross.

With Bournemouth pressing, it was the visitors who went in front. A long throw from Kevin Schade was not dealt with by a hesitant Cherries defence and Brentford captain Norgaard reacted quickest to smash in the bouncing ball.

The result meant it was four defeats in six league games for the Cherries, who have otherwise enjoyed a fine season and manager Andoni Iraola struggled to disguise his frustration at the recent form.

“At the end I think it’s another of these games where we are not efficient. I think we are doing a lot of good things but the most important things, other teams are doing much better than us,” said Iraola.

“We’ve created more chances, we will check the stats and we will have more than everything.

“If it happens only today, you could say ‘bad luck’ but it is happening every game. We must be better in both boxes.

“It’s a shame because we are now in a bad run of results but I see the team doing very good things.

“I would like to have arrived in the international break with a better run of results.”