Brentford were held to a goalless draw with Tottenham on Thomas Frank’s return to his former club as Spurs supporters sang "boring, boring Tottenham" at the Gtech Community Stadium.
Frank joined Spurs in the summer after six-and-a-half years in charge of Brentford and earned a 2-0 victory over his old side just 26 days ago, but they struggled to pose a threat in west London as the away fans lost patience with their performance, booing them off at half-time and full-time.
Spurs fans sang the songs of their former stars like Dele, Moussa Dembele, Eric Dier and even former boss Martin Jol during the first half and then delivered a damning 'boring, boring Tottenham' late in the second period.
Asked where supporters need to be more understanding, Frank said: "That question is very difficult for me to answer. We are going off a few boos after the game and I'm not reading anything on social media or articles.
"I watch the team and I'm very aware that we are not where I want us to be."
Tottenham, though, did have more shots on target than Brentford and recorded more xG than the hosts, but goalkeeper Caoimhin Kelleher was untroubled by the toothless attack.
Frank has made his mark on Spurs, with this their seventh clean sheet of the season in the Premier League, more than the six under Ange Postecoglou across the entirety of last season.
A drab first half from both sides saw Brentford's Kevin Schade have a fifth-minute tap-in ruled out for offside while Archie Gray's goal-bound header was crucially blocked by Nathan Collins for Spurs.
Brentford improved after the break, unlike Tottenham. Spurs captain Cristian Romero, back from suspension, was fortunate to escape a potential red card for his last-man foul on Igor Thiago, who was brought down when the defender missed his clearance and then handled the ball.
"I thought it was a red card," said Brentford boss Keith Andrews. "I felt Spurs were very lucky."
A minute later, Gray went down in the box under a challenge from Schade which went unpunished by referee Andy Madley before the VAR cleared the incident.
The hosts' Keane Lewis-Potter missed his kick when well-placed in the box, while Thiago skied an effort from close range. Vitaly Janelt also forced a good save from Guglielmo Vicario with a header as Spurs held on for a point.
Tottenham boss Thomas Frank:
"The positive is that against a very good home team that you need to respect with the results they've had where they're beating Liverpool, Man United, Newcastle, Villa, drawing with Chelsea, and keeping them to that low amount of chances, chances and seven shots in total.
"That's a very, very strong defensive performance. I think the back four did excellently, the whole team did excellently.
"The amount of unforced errors is the biggest negative, and that's the bit that then takes out eight, nine, half transitions where you're not getting into good positions. And then when we were up there, we lacked the cutting edge on the day."
Brentford boss Keith Andrews:
"We edged it in the second half, for sure. If anyone was going to go and win the game, I felt it would be us. I felt we were building momentum, we were sustaining attacks, we were getting into good areas.
"The way they were playing, slowing the game down, not wanting us to gain momentum, it was always going to be difficult to just keep that going. I felt we did and I felt we created a few decent opportunities. Unfortunately, we couldn't take them.
"Thomas knows his club better than I do. So, he's very aware of what can happen here. And when the electricity starts to get going within the stadium, the fans, the players feed off that, vice versa, it's a very dangerous place to come and play.
"I thought he was very respectful of the environment and what we can produce as a team here. And he did his best to nullify that."
