Bees boss Thomas Frank summed it up perfectly. Frustration at the outcome, pride at the performance.
For 25 minutes at the Etihad Stadium, Brentford had Manchester City on the ropes.
It was the kind of experience City tend to inflict on their opponents, not the other way round. If you come out of it just a goal down, you think yourself lucky.
City were lucky not to be further behind during that one-sided onslaught.
Brentford created chance after chance. None of them went in.
And at the very highest level, that is the difference.
In the aftermath, it is a day to draw plenty of positives, but in three months time, the scoreline just shows no points won. You get nothing for playing well.
It does show Brentford are on the right path. But they need to follow it up in three London derbies, against Leyton Orient in the EFL Cup on Tuesday and at Tottenham and against West Ham in the Premier League games that follow.
Frustration is not an experience Frank and his team want to deal with too often.