What Brentford boss said about 'frustrating' Aston Villa loss and 'aggressive' love letter to Wolves

Brentford manager Thomas Frank is determined to take the positives from a 'frustrating' defeat against Aston Villa last time out as his side face an 'aggressive' Wolves outfit.

The Bees took the lead against Aston Villa at the Gtech but capitulated after Ben Mee saw red in the second half with Alex Moreno and Ollie Watkins scoring for Villa. Brentford have had a luxurious 10 days to prepare to bounce back against Wolves on Wednesday night thanks to Manchester City's cup involvement.

Writing in his programme notes Frank spoke of his disappointment after the Villa match but admitted that an in-form Wolves side under Gary O'Neil would not be an easy chance to return to winning ways. The manager wrote: "I have a lot of respect for Gary O'Neil as a person and a head coach. Gary did a top job at Bournemouth last season, and I am pleased to see him doing well at Wolves.

"Gary and his staff have made Wolves a difficult side to play against. They are very adaptable, well organised and aggressive in the duels. They have pace and quality in forward areas and break at speed. We must be wary of Wolves' qualities, but we know that we are a good team and we always back ourselves.

"Against Aston Villa, our final game before Christmas, we were fantastic in many ways. There were some situations that didn't go our way, but that's part of football. It is what it is; we need to live with that. To lose the game was frustrating, but I was proud of the players' performance, effort, mentality and work rate."

Wolves arrive at the Gtech buoyed by victory over Chelsea at Molineux on Christmas Eve in an impressive 2-1 win and can pull six points ahead of Brentford in the league with an away win tonight. The Bees have suffered defeats in their last three league fixtures and look to bounce back ahead of Saturday's visit to Crystal Palace.