Brentford manager Thomas Frank didn’t think Ben Mee deserved a red card for his tackle on Leon Bailey in their defeat to Aston Villa on Sunday.
Referee David Coote initially brandished a yellow card to Mee, but after being advised to check the VAR monitor, he changed his decision and pulled out the red card. Fortunately, Bailey escaped injury and managed to get his side back in the game as he assisted Alex Moreno’s equaliser.
Ollie Watkins then bagged Villa’s second goal of the game, which ensured the club’s 12th league win of the campaign. After full-time, Frank disagreed with the referee’s decision to send Mee off and claimed the Bees were on the wrong end of multiple key decisions made by Coote.
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“I actually think it was a very interesting game, more or less until the end,” Frank said. “I think it was an interesting game between two teams who gave everything and in many ways we put in a very good performance against the team everyone is talking about.
“We are leading 1-0 and after that things go your way sometimes, sometimes they don’t and that’s margins. That happens and I’m a big believer that if you want to improve you have to learn from the mistakes. It’s just sometimes a little bit hard to take when you’re a little bit hard done by in crucial situations in the game.
“I don’t think the referee got got enough help from the VAR. I think it’s a clear penalty on Ben Mee, I think the red card is not a red card when you look back at it. The game is a little bit gone, back in the day – yellow, no problem. Even this when you look back – only a yellow.
“The biggest mistake is the penalty on Neal Maupay. How can they not see the penalty – then it’s 2-0 and probably game over.”
Asked about the incidents at the end of the match, Frank said: “In the end I didn’t like all the incidents, that’s not how the game should be played. I think it’s very important to show as much class as possible
“I think it’s difficult, I don’t do it every time and I’m irritated with myself when it happens, but I think there was too many situations where it was not the way it should be.”
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