Risk vs Reward: Keith Andrews Stands By 'Unpredictable' Style Despite Penalty Incident at Hull

Keith Andrews was keen to to come to the defence of his players and specific goal kick tactics after a sloppy mistake gifted a penalty to Hull City in the Bees' 1-1 draw at the MKM Stadium on Sunday afternoon. 

Brentford travelled to Hull knowing a win would put them fifth in the Premier League, however found themselves a goal down inside 25 minutes after Oli McBurnie's penalty put the home side ahead. 

The incident came after goalkeeper Caoimhin Kelleher made a risky pass to Aaron Hickey, who was filling in in midfield in the absence of Vitaly Janelt and Yehor Yarmoliuk, with the Scotsman receiving the ball on the edge of his own box running towards his own goal. 

Under pressure by Tim Iroegbunam, Hickey was dispossessed and brought down Iroegbunam who was through on goal for a Hull penalty.

To the relief of Brentford, Hickey's challenge was a genuine attempt to play the ball, and consequently the 24-year-old only received a booking due to the double jeopardy rule, preventing the Bees receiving a third red card in two games. 

However, the incident still proved costly, as McBurnie converted the spot kick to give the Tigers the lead, and consequently led to criticism from fans towards Brentford's goal kick routine which had resulted in the penalty.

Head coach Keith Andrews would not be drawn on whether Kelleher or Hickey were to blame for the incident and was insistent on the importance of Brentford maintaining an unpredictable style despite the blunder. 

When questioned on the incident in his post-match press conference, Andrews said: "I'm reluctant to critique the officials, I'm also reluctant to start picking apart whether that pass should have been played or not." 

"If you always go long you become predictable. I'm big on players making decisions and huge on them taking responsibility on the pitch. I think the game has gone through too much of a controlled state from coaches where players aren’t allowed to make decisions, so I encourage that."

"It’ll get the headlines, of course it will, because we've come to Hull and played a short goal kick and they’ve got a penalty off it. If we want to look at it in a very simplistic way we can but I’d rather look at it a little bit more deeply.”

The Irishman added that the Bees would look at the incident in the coming days and assess whether the pass from Kelleher and angle of approach from Hickey were right and what could've have been done better in that scenario. 

Thankfully for the West Londoners the incident was not completely costly, as they were still able to salvage a point on the road thanks to Dango Ouattara's second half equaliser. 

The point saw Brentford end the weekend in sixth place in the Premier League, with their next league fixture a home clash with Nottingham Forest next weekend coming after a midweek trip to Sunderland in the Carabao Cup.