Brentford 4-3 Ipswich Town: Karl Fuller on Aro Muric debate

There was so much to be proud of, yet moments which still infuriate me. And not entirely all Town’s fault I will add.

Here is my positive take first. With a fully fit squad going to Brentford, I would have been thinking that we would do well to get anything out of the game.

To go there without several key players made the job harder. Those that were returning after injury or being left out gave an incredibly good account of themselves. 

They did run towards adversity for the most part. What we witnessed was a much better performance than we saw against West Ham and Everton.

Town showed plenty of fighting spirit at Brentford, with Liam Delap making it 3-3 late on (Image: PA) At 3-2 and a man down, we did not give up and scored a great equaliser. The fighting spirit was more then evident.

Even at 4-3 down, there was still time for Liam Delap’s stupendous effort to crash against a post. Overall, much to be proud of and offer some hope again going forward.

But here is the crux. We continue to concede goals for fun. How do we stop this? Missing Axel Tuanzebe and Jacob Greaves is not ideal.

That said, Cameron Burgess individually had a good game. Collectively however, there are just too many mistakes. Brentford’s winner was a killer.

How do you solve a problem like Aro Muric? Burnley fans warned of a good goalkeeper on his day who is also prone to errors. He made some decent saves in this game as he did at Brighton.

Cameron Burgess reacts after Town's late defeat (Image: Ross Halls) But there always seems to be a clanger waiting to happen. And a costly clanger too. As a fan, I just do not have too much confidence right now. But seriously, I do not want to write him off. I am desperate to see him succeed, as much as I am the team.

I suspect Kieran McKenna will continue to stick by his man, but it can only be a matter of time before Christian Walton gets a chance.  

We were much better going forward. Conor Chaplin and George Hirst brought some familiarity back to our play and Sammie Szmodics was lively.

The old ‘2-0 is a dangerous scoreline’ bit us on the backside. But how different could it have been if Sammie had tucked away a golden chance to put us 3-0 ahead?

Aside from that winning goal, here is what else infuriated me. Harry Clarke was hung out to dry in several quarters. On another day, in another league, and with another match official, matters could look so different.

Harry Clarke had a day to forget (Image: Ross Halls) It is only a matter of time before the dubious goals panel will award Yoane Wissa a second goal in the game and chalk it off as an own goal by Clarke. Then there was his foul for a penalty. It proved the right decision.

But had that been in the Championship and the referee initially awarded a free-kick - as he did here - that would have stayed at that decision and a spot-kick averted. His second yellow card, meanwhile, saw him win the ball.

Given the circumstances, and the loss of Chiedozie Ogbene adding insult to injuries, we were just unlucky on the day not to come away with at least a point.

Meanwhile, it was another London home crowd that was so silent. What has diluted the noise so much of home fans in the Premier League?

I await with interest our next foray into the capital when we take on Spurs in a couple of weeks.

Kieran McKenna's men have a huge game against Leicester City on Saturday (Image: PA) Onto a huge game at home to Leicester on Saturday. Another which will be viewed as a must-win game. One where we really need to churn out our first victory of the season.

With so many key players missing, it will take a heroic effort to get this over the line. Failure to win will have the scaremongers frothing at the mouth. They are already giving us no chance.

Fighting like we did on Saturday will be a start.  Cutting out individual errors will carry us further.

For those of us in the stands, we simply must stick together and get back to making ourselves heard. We need to be that twelfth man on Saturday.