Bryan Mbeumo’s twenty-second minute goal was enough to sink Fulham once again, making it three consecutive losses and a tumble from third to sixth in the Championship table. What went wrong for the Cottagers? Brentford, that’s what.
Let’s get to the important stats. Courtesy of a victory far more emphatic than the scoreline suggests, Brentford slipped comfortably into fourth place.Mbeumo’s decisive strike – the eighth of the season from a player improving by leaps and bounds and burgeoning talent – and a performance that leaves them with the second-best defensive record in the division, just four conceded goals behind Leeds United, Brentford overwhelmed a side bristling with can-do ability.
Retrospectively, it is astonishing bordering on lackadaisical that the Bees did not score more from their twenty-three registered shots, seven on target, against eleven with an accuracy rate of just two for the visitors. Importantly, the team’s remarkable composure saw them achieve a foul-count of only half-a-dozen, while an increasingly frantic Fulham bludgeoned their way to thirteen.
So, for the Brentford fans pinching themselves in order to ascertain that this mid-season burst of form isn’t all an illusion, what’s not to like?
Some wayward Bees passing early on contributed to Fulham seizing control for the first fifteen minutes. Ethan Pinnock was among the culprits, although it was possible that the reflection from his immaculate electric orange boots was initially impairing his vision.
Fortunately, the visitors were busy showing that hitting a barn door from a few feet, or an aircraft hangar come to that, was not a speciality they had honed during training. What was, for Brentford, turned out to be the marshalling of a resolute defence that included foiling every scoring attempt of hot-shot centre-forward Aleksander Mitrovic – the division’s leading scorer with sixteen – who found that shaking off the attentions of Pontus Jansson was as difficult as getting rid of a bad cold.
The Serbian international, every inch of his six feet-two inches apparently designed by a striker couturier, became frustrated to the point of vigorously complaining to the referee whenever muscled out of the way by a Brentford defender. As this was a frequent occurrence, Mitrovic gave up moaning after a while and was rarely seen from then on.
The goal, when it arrived, was a corker, with Ollie Watkins – 13 goals to his credit and a contender for Mitrovic’s crown – feeding Said Benrahma, whose weaving run shredded the Fulham defence and enabled him to supply a perfect pass for an unmarked Mbeumo to volley home. Scoring is getting to be a habit with Mbeumo, whose fourth in as many games this was.
The strike swung the game and Thomas Frank’s programme forecast of ‘a top-quality championship contest’ unfolded before our and his eyes. Fortunately for the visitors, goalkeeper Marek Rodak was in fine form and when his acrobatics were not enough, the woodwork of his goal came to the rescue. Almost everybody except the referee hit a post, the prize example going to a Mathias Jensen drive that hit the inside of one upright and the ball then rebounding with enough pace for Rodak to push it away as it sped across to the other.
Fulham did their best and David Raya, also at the top of his game, punched a goal-bound effort away as two front men ended sprawled on the turf, their strenuous efforts unrewarded.
Chances came and went and although all were unconverted Brentford remained in command – no wonder that after the game Frank described much of his side’s play as ‘magical’. He can be forgiven for exaggeration, slight that it was, when adding. ‘Tonight I will watch it after a glass of wine and agree it was magical and, at times, beautiful,’ he said.
‘He’d better keep waving his wand,’ said my mate Charlie.
Brentford: Raya, Dalsgaard, Jansson, Pinnock, Henry, Dasilva (sub Norgaard), Mokotjo, Jensen, Mbeumo (Roerslev), Watkins, Benrahma.
Fulham: Rodak, Christie, Mawson, Ream, Bryan, Johansen (Kamara), Onomah, Cairney, Cavaleiro(Decordova-Reid), Mitrovic, Kebano (Knockaert),