Daniel Stendel was left disappointed following Barnsley’s 3-1 Sky Bet Championship defeat at home to Brentford on Sunday afternoon.
The Reds took an early lead through Cauley Woodrow’s sublime long-range strike, but an Ollie Watkins hat-trick was enough to send Thomas Frank’s side back to west London with all three points.
“I think we’re all disappointed, but all I can say is that we have worked hard – like we did all last season – but we need to accept that this is a different league and different quality,” insisted Stendel.
“It’s hard to accept the performance; we started well and, after two minutes, were 1-0 up, but I cannot say that – especially in the first half – we played bad, but after 20 or 25 minutes Brentford played so much better and they found an easy way to break our press.
“We conceded a goal after our corner and this is too easy for the Championship and I think Brentford can play better than in the first half, and it was hard to see for the supporters in the last 20 minutes.
“We work hard for good results but, at the moment, we’re not getting the right results and the good thing is that we have a new game on Wednesday and a good chance.”
Heading into Sunday’s clash at Oakwell, Brentford were also struggling for consistency in the league and had only picked up two wins.
After an even first half, the game was in the balance, but Stendel conceded that the Bees’ second goal straight after the interval was a sucker punch for his team.
“Brentford is a better team than where they are in the table and they showed it,” admitted the Reds’ Head Coach. “We can only play similar to the last games – especially the second half in Nottingham – but after this it was not good enough to keep the points here.
“We didn’t defend as well as we could and Brentford had the quality. They had the space that they needed and we tried to change this in the second half, but with the first attack they made it 2-1 and, it’s difficult to say, but this was the knockout for us.”
You can watch Daniel's full post-match press conference on iFollow Barnsley.
