Captain Nathan Collins insists Dango Ouattara has the full support of Brentford's dressing room following his botched Panenka in Monday’s agonising FA Cup shootout defeat at West Ham United.
The Republic of Ireland international was back in the starting XI as the Bees twice came from behind to draw 2-2 at London Stadium before losing the fifth-round tie 5-3 on penalties after Ouattara’s eye-catching miss.
"Penos happen, you miss penos; he took a risk and it didn’t happen and we move on from it," the 24-year-old said.
"He gets support from us, we all love him and you see what he does on the pitch for us. We’ll move on from that, just disappointment in the dressing room though, just really gutted," echoing the sentiments of his manager, who called some of the criticism levelled at Ouattara as "disgusting".
European hopefuls Brentford, who sit seventh in the Premier League, have never won a major trophy and were bidding to reach the quarter-finals of the cup for the first time since 1989.
"It’s frustrating, especially the manner of going out on penalties," added defender Collins. "We wanted a cup run this year, felt like we had it in us, felt like the squad was good enough for it. It’s really annoying to take."
Collins has only played 76 minutes in Brentford's five Premier League fixtures since being dropped from Keith Andrews' starting lineup ahead of the Bees' win over Aston Villa at the start of February,
The Kildare native will have two potential Premier League games – at home to Wolves and away to Leeds United – before his attention will turn to Ireland’s World Cup play-off with Czechia on Thursday, 26 March in Prague.
Victory there would set-up a date with Denmark or North Macedonia five days later in Dublin for the chance to play in this year’s tournament.
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