Brentford were two goals up against bottom-side Wolves by the 37th minute on Monday night and looked to be cruising to a routine three points at the Gtech.
Michael Kayode and Igor Thiago scored the goals – the latter also hit the bar with a header following the former’s trademark long throw – as the Bees looked to put themselves just two points off Liverpool in fifth.
But despite staring down the barrel of relegation, Wolves’ task seems to be disrupting other teams’ ambitions as they continue to go down swinging. Just as they did against Arsenal a month ago, Rob Edwards’ side came from 2-0 down to snatch a point – Adam Armstrong pulling one back before half-time before Tolu Arokodare levelled the game with 13 minutes remaining.
It was a spirited second-half performance from the visitors, who were asking all the questions. Armstrong clipped the post at 2-1, and Arokodare’s header smashed the crossbar two minutes after scoring, leaving Edwards disappointed they didn’t claim all three points.
“It’s hard to say once you’ve been 2-0 down, but I feel like we could have got all three today. We hit the post, we hit the bar, we pushed,” he said post-match.
“It’s a tinge of that,” Edwards said when asked if he was disappointed with just a point. “When you’re 2-0 down away (to Brentford) in the Premier League, if you asked me then, ‘would you take a point now?’ I probably would. But like I said, I thought we were playing very well.”
Bees boss Keith Andrews, on the other hand, was also deeply frustrated with the result after his side conceded control of the contest and allowed Wolves back into the game.
“We need to manage the game better, we need to perform better in the second half, manage momentum, deal with whatever way the game flows and then try and mature a little bit more,” he reflected. “We got punished.”
Brentford missed an opportunity to pull away from the chasing pack for European qualification and edge themselves within touching distance of an unprecedented push for the Champions League. But, befitting of his approach throughout the season, Andrews didn’t entertain this narrative.
“I think the fact that I’m getting asked questions like that is obviously really nice, isn’t it?” he said. “Where we are with eight games to go, that’s a good position to be in. Our destiny, where we finish in the league, what we achieve this year is very much on us.
“I think that’s the big message to everybody attached to the club. What do we want to do? Do we want to continue to really push hard? Because I do. I really want to push hard in these last eight games, which is why it’s disappointing that we weren’t able to find three points.”
The game wasn’t without its controversy, either. In the buildup to Armstrong’s strike, it appeared Wolves shotstopper Jose Sa had handled a backpass.
“I think the fact that I’ve been in three interviews now and I’ve been asked in every one about it would suggest that it probably was (a backpass),” Andrews answered. “So that is what it is.
“We can’t really affect that. We can affect a lot of other things tonight that we didn’t do as well as we know we can.”