Declan Rice feels that when we look back on our 1-1 draw against Brentford in the coming months, we might feel that the point we left west London with was a good one.
An excellent Noni Madueke header got us in front during the second half at the Gtech Community Stadium but we were pegged back when Keane Lewis-Potter equalised 10 minutes later, and despite an end-to-end rip-roaring conclusion, either side could have finished victorious.
But both had to settle for a share of the spoils, and despite being frustrated we couldn’t quite hang onto all three points, Declan feels that given the opposition’s performance this season and the context of the game, he’s happy to look on the positive side during a feel-good campaign so far.
“We weren’t naive to think that this was going to be a pushover,” he said. “They’re an amazing team, they’re seventh in the league and Keith Andrews has got them playing really, really well. They're so effective at how they play, and we prepared for that. We knew what was coming.
“It might be a valuable point towards the end. The only thing we can do is just keep worrying about ourselves like we’ve been doing. We’ve been on an amazing run this season, the performances have been incredible. If you look at the amount of games we’ve played and how many we’ve won, we’ve lost three in all competitions all season.
“So let’s take the positives, keep going, keep pushing, keep sticking together. Everyone’s needed on this road to the end. There’s a long way to go but we’re positive.”
A goalless first half with minimal goalmouth action gave way to a helter-skelter affair after the break, and Dec feels that the result was a fair one given each side dominated portions of the game.
The draw means our lead at the top of the table has been cut to four following Manchester City’s win against Fulham 24 hours earlier, but we can park our Premier League dreams for a few days now as we refocus on the FA Cup and a home game against Wigan Athletic on Sunday.
“It was a really tough game,” Rice reflected. “They probably had the first 20 minutes, we then probably had the next 25 and ended the first half really well. Then we started the second half really well, got the goal which was fully deserved, and then they probably had the last 25 minutes. So it was split into different stages, and could have probably gone either way at the end.
“We really wanted to win, we wanted to stamp our authority on it, but in the end we have to take the point and move forward.
“We have to keep going. We’ve played a lot of games this season, and we’ve got to keep staying mentally refreshed, physically refreshed. Now we move on to the next game, so got to keep going.”
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