Brentford 4 Brighton 2

Image: Mbeumo fends off Estupinan

FOURTH SEASON: No place like home!

Brentford 4, Brighton & Hove 2; 19.04.25

An extraordinary twist in the tale of Brentford’s Premier League match against Brighton at the Gtech Community Stadium: after having the best of the first half and going ahead with a Bryan Mbeumo goal, the Bees conceded the equaliser with the referee ready to blow his whistle for the break.

Oh, calamity – surely not another collapse of what had seemed a solid beginning to their first home victory since last December?

Well, no. The same eleven Bees who emerged back on to the pitch seemed, well, different. Brimming with confidence to begin with, Mbeumo doubled his goal tally within three minutes.

Then Yoane Wissa, the lion of the penalty area, scored with a shot beyond the reach of keeper Bart Verbruggen.

Image: Damsgaard escapes Nørgaard and Joao Pedro tangle

Sceptics in the crowd were still scratching their heads as the Bees took command. Brighton were hardly docile, but one sensed their hearts were no longer in the business in hand.

As my mate Charlie pondered on what magic potion had been concocted to wreak havoc in the Brighton ranks, I pondered on the ten minutes or so in which Thomas Frank had a brought about a sea change in the fortunes of the home side.

Mbeumo’s gallop away with Keane Lewis-Potter’s pin-point delivery and a delicious finish as two defenders failed to apprehend him was one thing. The whole team’s attitude change was something special.

The home side’s initial problems seem to be rooted in taking their eye off the ball – metaphoric and not much use – and failing to cope with a Danny Welbeck run that put everyone excluding Nathan Collins napping before he headed an equaliser with not much left of the maker’s name on the referee’s timepiece.

Image: Ever-creative Damsgaard re-directs the action

The hardened loyal supporters were worried that this would set back the impetus their team had been building nicely. Don’t be daft? Those with long memories and countless disappointments know full well that fickle fate is just that, no matter the circumstances.

Instead, the same eleven Bees who had departed rather glumly at the end of the first half were players reborn.

And before you knew it, Mbeumo had fired a slow shot into the penalty area and, via the faintest of bushes with Dunk, find the far corner of the net.

And this wasn’t all in the memorable opening salvo of the half: on 58 minutes Yoane Wissa found space in the penalty area to clip his shot – another slight brush with Dunk who should be careful that it doesn’t’ become a habit – to register the third goal from Brentford’s deadly duo of Mbeumo and Wissa.

Bryan Mbeamo scored his 17th and 18th goals of the season in this game; Wissa recorded his 16th; no wonder the partnership has choreographed its own little jog off celebration.

Image: Flying Wissa attacks overhead

Later, we began to realise that although Thomas Frank had almost certainly not brought along a magic potion to the team room, his wise words may well have galvanised them. ‘I said to the players, “Just win”,’ he revealed, probably the smartest advice available.

The visitors’ loss of a player did nothing to help the Bees: Joao Pedro, already in referee Tim Robinson’s yellow-card book, was guilty of a daft foul on Collins.

Indeed, Pedro set of on the long and lonely walk to the changing room before being recalled to wait and suffer the VAR stamp of approval.

In fact, Brighton managed to snatch one back, through Kaoru Mitoma, but nobody really thought they could overhaul the home side, especially when Bees captain Christian Nørgaard was seen noticeably plundering inside the visitors’ areas – Christian has both the ability and agility when in the time is right.

Image: Defender Van den Berg also tests the Brighton keeper

This time it was in the air that he utilised a Mathias Jensen free kick to head a goal inside the nearest post as Mr Robinson counted eight minutes, more or less, of extra time allocated for medical attention to a player. (The referee didn’t impress much of the home crowd, or the visitors or, and as far as I am aware the tea ladies.).

‘Player sent off, another stretchered to the sick room, plus a two-goal deficit for three points,’ I listed to Charlie as the Bees’ crowds happily headed for the exit.

‘Not much of a day for Brighton,’ said Charlie.

Brentford (4-2-3-1): Flekken; Kayode (sub Ajer 66m), Collins, van den Berg, Lewis-Potter (Henry 76); Nørgaard, Yarmoliuk (Jensen 76), Mbeumo; Damsgaard (Janelt 87), Schade (Konak 87), Wissa.

Brighton & Hove Albion (4-2-3-1): Verbruggen; Wieffer (Adingra 89), van Hecke (Cashin 90), Dunk, Estupiñan; Hinshelwood, Baleba (Gomez 77); Minteh (March 65), O’Riley (Mitoma 65), Pedro; Welbeck (Ayari 77)

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