Brentford head coach Keith Andrews spoke of his “pride” after Aston Villa were beaten 1-0 at the Gtech Community Stadium to hand him a first win in charge.
Dango Ouattara hit the winner on his debut following a club-record £42.5million move from Bournemouth, as the home side turned in a guileful display that got life after former boss Thomas Frank off the ground following a false start in last weekend’s defeat to Nottingham Forest.
Once in the lead, Brentford coped comfortably with a limited attacking threat from Villa, who are still awaiting their first goal of the new Premier League season.
“The overriding emotion is pride,” said Andrews. “I spoke before about identity of our team. I felt we saw it in abundance, the spirit and connection between players, staff and fans. Ultimately we produced a performance that was us.”
Ouattara’s goal arrived just 12 minutes into his debut. Igor Thiago – fresh from scoring his first Premier League goal last weekend – manoeuvred to flick on Caoimhin Kelleher’s long clearance and through the middle burst Brentford’s record buy, carving between Matty Cash and Pau Torres to finish at the second attempt past Emiliano Martinez.
“His goal will get the headlines but there were aspects of the game, the selflessness nature of how he approached the game for the team, that’s what was needed today to get a result,” said Andrews. “If he didn’t stick to that task it was going to be difficult to deal with them.
“He was amazing. He will be a big player for this club. His attributes are there to see and you’ll see more of that as we get more control of games and we’re able to feed him a bit more.
“But the out of possession shift he did today was selfless. It was very impressive, but I’m not too surprised. I’m really impressed with him as an individual.”
As expected there was no place in the squad for forward Yoane Wissa, who is pushing for a move away from the club.
“I felt it was right for the group,” said Andrews.
“We needed a group today that was absolutely committed to showing what we’re about. Identity, what this club is and how it’s been built. I felt it was the right decision not to include Yoane today.”
For Villa, it was a performance that took too long to get going, and by the time it did in the second half, Brentford were comfortable in their mission and held Unai Emery’s side largely at bay as they registered only two shots in target.
“We lost one match today because the first 20 minutes we weren’t really performing with the intensity we needed,” said Emery.
“After the goal we reacted, we dominated, we created some chances. They were defending and trying to get one transition. We avoided the attacking transition and we dominated.”
Emery remained hopeful the club will do business ahead of the transfer deadline on September 1 after what has been a quiet window.
“We have to clarify some circumstances we have in the transfer window. We have enough players but we need to clarify with some players if they are staying or not, and the possibility we can add some to help us.”
