Fraser 'buzzing' after beating Bees

After Josh Dasilva's early red card for the hosts, following a VAR check for a dangerous challenge on Matt Targett, Eddie Howe's side opened the scoring through Joelinton's powerful header courtesy of Fraser's pinpoint cross.

Joe Willock's composed finish extended the visitors' lead in the closing stages of the first-half, the midfielder's second goal in as many games, before the Magpies comfortably saw out the second-half to register a fourth league win in their last seven league games.

Fraser, who registered an assist in the reverse fixture against Thomas Frank's Bees in November, told nufc.co.uk: “Ever since the gaffer’s came in, there’s been a change in spirit and there is belief we can win when we go out on that pitch.

“No one questions it, we all get our jobs and he’s putting us out there to win the game. The lads are feeling unbelievable - I can’t tell how you how hard it is to go seven games unbeaten in the Premier League.

"Getting back-to-back wins is hard enough as it is but to go seven unbeaten, winning four of them, is unbelievable from where we’d been. You get the top six teams who will struggle to be seven unbeaten sometimes. It’s brilliant and all the lads are buzzing for it!

“I don’t think the red card changed the game. Before the red card, we dominated it and had chances. I think it makes it harder because they sit in even more but the lads stood up to it, getting the two goals before half-time.

“The gaffer told us to try and win three or four nil but two-nil, a clean sheet in the Premier League and getting three points with the fans buzzing is all that matters!

“I thought the second goal was coming anyway but it was a great counter-attack from us. We can play two styles now - keeping the ball like we did in the second-half, managing out the game, and we can also hit teams on the counter.

"We know what we’re doing and the gaffer puts us in a structure we know when to counter and keep the ball in transition so it’s been brilliant."

Following Allan Saint-Maximin's absence from the trip to West London due to injury, Fraser was handed a rare start out on the left wing by Howe and was pleased to register a key assist for the opening goal.

The Scotland international, who joined the Magpies from AFC Bournemouth in September 2020, also admitted he relished working with left-back Matt Targett despite little preparation with the Aston Villa loanee prior to the clash at the Brentford Community Stadium. 

The 28-year-old added: “It’s my job to do that (assisting) but you go into the game thinking about your performance first - the willingness, running and doing the game plan the manager has given you and the rest comes on top of that.

“I played out on the left for the first time and the gaffer knows that’s my favourite position! Maxi (Allan Saint-Maximin) and Murph (Jacob Murphy) have been playing there and I got used to playing on the right.

“Me and Matt had a very good relationship today. We trained just once with each other, on Friday, and as a full-back and wide man, I don’t think you would have noticed it would have been one day on the training pitch."

Before United's journey to Brentford's home ground, Fraser revealed himself and the squad were inspired by a pre-match quote from Howe.

After sealing three points against the West London outfit, moving into 14th place in the process, Fraser is hopeful his side can continue to climb the league ladder.

The Aberdeen-born winger said: “We wanted to score two or three more in the second-half but sometimes in football, you take the two-nil and we’re now up to 14th. We need to go and win next week now and make it eight unbeaten!

“The gaffer had a meeting before the game at the hotel and his quote was ‘Do you want to be hunted or be the hunter?’.

"We would jump three places today if we won and that little bit of motivation before we came to the ground was important. Now, we need to keep being the hunter and get up as far as we can.

"Although we don't want to get too far ahead of ourselves, we can still finish quite high up in the table."