Seagulls
A South Coast spectacular – six goals, with the Bees never behind – augured well for the remains of the eight-day fixture jam that could see them climb close to the Premier League’s top half-dozen. The Brighton experience on the first day of the month proved yet again that Brentford can live with the best – no April Fools they.
Goals from Pontus Jansson, to whom we pay a fond farewell as he soon returns to his beloved Malmo, Ivan Toney and Ethan Pinnock seemed likely to be enough to capture the three points at the Amex Stadium; until Alexis Mac Allister snatched a last-minute penalty to even the score, that is.
And, sadly, it was a prelude to two disappointing encounters against division high-flyers, each of which saw odd-goal defeats for Brentford and severe dents in dreams of European football next season.
Old Trafford
Having seen off Manchester United 4-0, a memorable drubbing at the Gtech Stadium in the second match of this term, Brentford must have hoped to return from Old Trafford with something other than Eccles cake for their trouble. If so, they reckoned without Marcus Rashford, brought in from the wing to lead the United attack. He sparkled, beating David Raya with a crisp half-volley after 27 minutes, while Brentford struggled to compete seriously for much of the game and departed following a 1-0 defeat.
‘Not too bad,’ said my mate Charlie. ‘We win 4-1 on aggregate.’ Good gag, but no points on this occasion.
Magpies
Just three days later, it was Newcastle United’s turn to provide classy opposition, in this case at the Gtech. Newcastle had walloped Brentford 5-1 at home last October, so there was no room for aggregate jokes now. Instead, the Bees started at a breathtaking pace and might well have been more than a goal to the good come half-time but for a pesky VAR decision – an Ivan Toney close-in ‘score’, ruled out for offside – and then a thrilling Kevin Schade run that saw him unceremoniously clattered inside the area, only for Toney’s weak penalty to be saved easily by keeper Nick Pope.
It had to happen one day
Yes, that’s no mistake. Let me repeat – Toney, penalty king of the Premier League, failed to score from the spot for the first time in living memory. Still, with a goal up and Thomas Frank’s shuffled team, with Schade replacing Bryan Mbeumo, looking good, so what was there to worry about?
What’s more, when referee bowed to pressure from the home side and the urging by VAR to lope from the pitch to watch – several times, judging by the time he took – the video replay of Rico Henry apparently being upended, Toney remembered how to take the resultant penalty. Dead-eyed Dick handsomely beat Pope for pace and direction to put the Bees in front.
The earlier replacement by Zanka of the ominously injured skipper Pontus Jansson on the quarter-hour – hopefully not a recurrence of the hamstring problem that sidelined him recently – was not cheering, but surely not upsetting enough for the transformation of the team’s performance for the first twenty minutes after the interval.
With the introduction by Eddie Howe of livewires Callum Wilson and Anthony Gordon, Newcastle were rejuvenated. Brentford also looked like a different team, but not in a good way. So when after 54 minutes Raya somehow managed to scramble a Joelinton cross behind him and over the line, it came as no surprise.
Neither did a second goal, even though its quality was far superior. Wilson provided the assist for Alex Isaz to drill an unstoppable shot from outside the box and then Wilson poached a third, only for VAR to rule it out for handball by the striker.
Shortly afterwards a bemused Brentford resumed full participation in the game, which guaranteed extra frisson to what was already a high-tension encounter. Brighton, occupying a top-six position or thereabouts for much of the season, are a strong side, with several tall and muscular fellows – the kind of companions that might come in handy on Saturday nights on the door of an unsavoury boozer.
Toney, Schade – a fast-learning winger only slightly slower than a greyhound – harried the opposition, even those measuring upwards of six-foot-six, but even with Frank pitching Bryan Mbeumo and Yoanne Wissa into the action, Brighton coasted home. To the home crowd’s irritation, there was time-wasting of course, to the extent that Head Coach Howe substituted one of his previous substitutes, Gordon, who from the look on his face did not appreciate the amount of precious time being taken as he trudged from the pitch.
When the dust had settled after the weekend, the Bees had slipped from seventh to ninth in the League table, kindly helped by below-par performances from nearest rivals Fulham and Chelsea. No catastrophe so far, but by then Aston Villa had appeared from nowhere to occupy sixth spot and rank alongside Liverpool, Spurs and Manchester City in the Premier League elite the Bees must meet before season’s end.
Wolves
Bearing this in mind, no doubt, Brentford headed for the Midlands to take on Wolverhampton Wanderers, on paper a relatively easy ask compared to facing these luminaries. But Wolves have recently turned their season around, distancing themselves from the relegation box in the process and moving smoothly upwards.
As if Brentford needed more sobering news, having learned that skipper Pontus Jansson was to leave the club at the end of the season, Wolves’ effervescence from the kick-off signalled an outfit just dealt a Get-out-of-jail card and, though not quite monopolising the play, proved to be a handful for the visitors’ defence.
David Raya was busy from the off, while Matthias Jensen collected a yellow card early on and his meticulous work in midfield soon earned patches of booing and accusations of being boring. Wolves contributed some fluid football and Diego Costa, recruited from retirement only last September by the striker-bereft club, looked a constant danger.
Costa hadn’t scored a Premier League goal for almost six years but, aided by a slice of good fortune, managed to do so after 27 minutes. Running with the ball into the penalty area, he was robbed by Christian Nørgaard’s finely judged tackle, only for the ball to rebound from the forward’s chest and continue unmolested into the goal.
Thomas Frank indulged in his familiar substitution shuffle after the break but for once the magic wouldn’t work. And a second goal, scored by Wolves’ own sub, Hwang Hee-chan, midway through the half following a defensive muddle, wrapped up an unsatisfactory day for the Bees.
It could have been worse, said my mate Charlie, and indeed it soon became so, what with Aston Villa, the new kids on the championship-chasing block, handsomely beating Newcastle 3-0.
Bill Hagerty is Chairman emeritus, British Journalism Review and a Director, London Press Club