Thomas Frank admitted Brentford have had their most challenging season so far in the Premier League and says they only achieved their minimum objective.
The Bees can only finish as high as 15th this term, after their previous campaigns saw them come 13th and then ninth.
But long-term injuries to their entire defence and other players such as captain Christian Norgaard and striker Bryan Mbeumo - not to mention Ivan Toney's eight-month betting ban - mean that just steering clear of the relegation scrap is an achievement in itself.
"Has it been the toughest? Of the years we've had in the Premier League, yeah no doubt about that," said Bees boss Frank.
"When you are in this business you work very hard to make everything perfect, you want to play the perfect game and you do everything you can to achieve that win.
"Then, when you don't get a little bit of reward it's tough just to go again and again.
"But, hey, that's how it is. We lost a lot of football matches and (we had) the injuries.
"The hope and expectations I had - and a lot of us had - before this season was that we could have done a bit more.
"I think there was a lot of promising performances and stats that showed that we, even with the performances we put in, we could have ended higher anyway.
"If more of the key players were available, I'm sure we could have done something truly good.
"But we did the minimum criteria - and that was to stay in the Premier League.
"There's a few who have said to me that maybe it's our biggest achievement so far in the Premier League.
"I'm always a bit 'meh', because I want more. But I understand where they are coming from, with the injuries, with Ivan's ban, with not getting the points maybe we performed to in the most relentless league in the world, with our budget.
"Take all that into account, it's probably a more than OK season and we will continue developing."
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