Brentford 3, Bournemouth 2

Vitaly’s moment of magic

Forget that debacle at Fulham. And the Carabao Cup draw with Sheffield Wednesday that needed a penalty shootout to settle. No, this was the real deal, which saw Brentford shrug off a lead established by Bournemouth and storm to a victory that sent fans into the chilly evening with smiles on their faces.

Enough of the hyperbole – there is plenty of room to manoeuvre for Thomas Frank’s squad if they are to maintain a position in the top half of the table.

In the meantime, the likes of Yoane Wissa, Bryan Mbeumo and Mikkel Damsgaard need to polish their game with the maximum of elbow-grease to ensure Brentford remain in contention or thereabouts. And then there is Vitaly Janelt, the Bees’ Mr Reliable who on this occasion contributed a gold-plate performance that included a magnificent through-ball which enabled Wissa to stretch Brentford’s lead.

Image: The thin red line, Mbeumo, Damsgaard and Jensen

Bournemouth were beginning to look frazzled by the fifty-eighth minute when Vitaly laid off the ball to Keane Lewis-Potter and found himself a space to accept the return.

His forward pass then bamboozled the defence to let Wissa chip his finish over keeper Kepa Arrizabalaga and into the net. An all-round masterpiece with the German at the heart.

As all-too often happens to the Bees, they had played like soppy schoolboys for the first twenty minutes.

It was as if Bournemouth had been studying Fulham’s barnstorming win the previous Monday when much of the Brentford side were occupied with finding the ball, losing the ball and wringing their hands while Fulham snatched an equaliser, and then a winner, in the dying moments of a tortuous visit to Craven Cottage.

The worst of the Bees’ woeful early display against Bournemouth came on 17 minutes, when the recently signed Dutch full-back, Sepp van den Berg, decided to send Mark Flekken a back pass that was as short as the coat of a new-born lamb. No lamb in sight, and the Brazilian Evanilson nipped in between defender and goalkeeper to score. The silence from the majority of the home crowd was eerie.

The silence did not last long, thank heavens. The Bees suddenly decided that they really could see off the visitors, and shoving wins over Manchester City and Arsenal to the back of the Cherries’ minds, they set about it.

Whereupon the second hero of the day emerged with bursts of energy and penetrating passing.

Image: When push comes to shove…

Damsgaard has been growing in stature for much of the season so far but here showed what an accomplished midfield general he can be. Not before the visitors scored again, however, but this time it made little impression on the Bees.

A smartly taken corner saw Justin Kluivert and Lewis Cook combine before the former scored neatly at the near post.

Bournemouth’s jubilation was deserved, but lasted no longer than a minute, the time it took for Mbeumo to supply Damsgaard near the touchline before beating the goalkeeper and anyone else on its way with a shot that appeared to be of the tightest possible angle.

What with recording two goal-rich matches already at home this term – 5-3 against Wolves and 4-3 from Ipswich’s visit – Brentford tucked another three into their statistics scored file, setting a record of sorts in the Premier League. Maybe the number of goals conceded takes the gloss off the stats but, hey, nobody’s perfect.

Bournemouth certainly would agree with that sentiment, what with their teal-coloured shirts – the colour represents open communication and clarity of thought, my mate Charlie informed me – and little to take home other than a place in someone else’s statistic.

What does our first-choice shirts of red and white stripes signify, I wondered.

‘Passionate love for red, purity and innocence for white,’ said Charlie. But I think he was kidding.

Image: And the crowd roared for Vitaly Janelt and Wissa

Brentford (5-5-1) Flekken; van den Berg, Collins, Pinnock, Lewis-Potter; Janelt; Norgaard (Schade 82m); Jensen (Yarmoliuk 79), Damsgaard (Konak 90+3)), Wissa, Mbeumo (Carvalho 90+3).

Bournemouth (4-3-2-1): Kepa; Smith (Araujo 84), Zebarny, Senesi (Huijsen 67), Kerkez; Cook, Adams (Tavernier 67), Semenyo, Christie (Enes Unal 76), Kluivert (Brooks 76), Evanilson. (4-2-3-1.)

Bill Hagerty is a contributing editor to the Bees United website. Photographs by Liz Vercoe.

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