Frank happy with foundations, despite frustrations of another stalemate for Brentford

Thomas Frank admits he is looking for greater potency from his team, but is more than happy with the foundations which have brought a run of 10 undefeated games.

The Bees were left frustrated by their second home draw in a matter of days as Derby County became the latest team to thwart them at the new Brentford Community Stadium.

It means six of the last 10 games have been drawn and they are currently outside the top six, in spite of that unbeaten streak.

Yet the Bees boss says he sees his glass as “always half full” rather than half empty and believes the goals and wins will come.

“I would say we have a higher level to hit, offensively. I don’t think we hit that enough this season, but I’m sure, when we have this foundation to build from, I’m sure it will come,” Frank said.

“First and foremost, 10 games unbeaten in this league is a good performance and is a very strong foundation to have.

“Of course, we want to turn some of the draws into wins and I think if we look through all of the draws, we were, if not the better team, the team that chased the win – also with our subs, as you could see today. We had offensive substitutions and tried to win the game.

“Against Wycombe, Middlesbrough and Swansea, I think in all of those games we wanted to go for the win. Sometimes it drops for you and you get the reward, but we didn’t do that today.”

Frank said Wednesday night’s 0-0 draw with the Rams was not as disappointing as it looks.

“I know they are at the bottom of the Championship, but everyone knows the quality of the players and that they were top six contenders last year,” he said.

“When you play against a good team like Derby, and they are coming here to only get one point - which I completely understand and respect - and yet you still on a day when you are not at your top level create five big chances to their one, you win seven or eight out of 10 of these games.

“For various reasons, we just couldn’t get the ball in the back of the net, but normally you walk away with a 2-0 win and everybody’s happy. If we played this game again, we’d win eight out of 10.”

The Dane added: “It was good performance from Sergi [Canos] again. There was a lot coming from him in the final third, making some of the actions to open things up and Bryan [Mbeumo] is getting chances, and normally he’s putting at least one of them in the back of the net.

“But still in that relationship between the front three and the midfielders, we lack the final bit of edge. And we should be a bit tidier on the ball with our passing and today didn’t keep the ball well enough.”