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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
Sport
Dom Smith

Thomas Frank hopes for 'world record' as he hails 'unbelievably fantastic' Brentford progress

Thomas Frank has claimed that what Brentford continue to achieve as a club is “unbelievably fantastic” and said he hopes his side's first-minute goals in three straight Premier League games is a world record.

The Bees remain in 12th place in the Premier League table after Saturday’s 1-1 home draw with West Ham.

Brentford have one of the lowest budgets in the top-flight and are in their fourth successive season as a Premier League club despite having previously not been in the first division since 1947.

Bees head coach Frank said of his side’s draw against the Hammers: “I think overall we were the better team, except for 15 minutes in the second half.

“They outmuscled us the first 15 minutes of the second half, but besides that I thought we were on top. We pushed for that 2-1 goal in the second half, without having the cutting edge.

“We were missing nine first-team players, where six of them - Christian Norgaard, Mathias Jensen, Igor Thiago, Yoane Wissa, Aaron Hickey and Rico Henry - you could argue would start for us.

“Then we lost Kevin Schade after 65 minutes with cramp - that meant we basically had nothing to shoot with and had to go for defensive subs.

“They were putting on [Crysencio] Summerville, a Greek international [Konstantinos Mavropanos], a Spanish international [Carlos Soler]. And they have a huge budget.

“I’m never happy when we don’t win, but [putting] all that into context, that’s just a huge credit to the players. What we do is unbelievably fantastic.”

Brentford scored 22 seconds into their 2-1 defeat at Manchester City a fortnight ago and then struck after 23 seconds in last weekend’s 3-1 loss at Tottenham. They followed that up with Bryan Mbeumo’s 37-second goal against West Ham.

“It’s crazy”, Frank said. “I know it’s a Premier League record, but there are other leagues in the world. I need to know it’s a world record.

“Of course, there is planning to it. We have a kick-off strategy, so that’s one thing. And then as a philosophy, we like to be positive. I want to put credit to the coaching staff that work on it and the players.”

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