BUS STOP IN HOUNSLOW
West Ham 1 Brentford 2
Sides newly promoted to the Premier League have often fancied their chances of nabbing points on their first visit to London Stadium. This is a hope predicated on Hammers’ lousy first four seasons at that once most Olympic of venues. There is also the open football that West Ham play often leading to open goals, often missed.
Brentford start the game on the attack from the first minute, with Bryan Mbeumo twice finding himself in early scoring positions from where he is inches away from capitalising on, his second effort clipping the bar, with Fabianski a couple of pub crawls away from the effort. And then just when it looks as though the early danger has passed, Ivan Toney’s flick puts Serge Canos through, and though Fabianski parries his effort, Mbeumo is on hand to tuck away the rebound, with a shot that the replay indicates has just crossed the line.
An Austrian Ultras European victory hangover behind them, West Ham begin to shut Brentford down towards the end of the half, but each time they close in on goal they have Pontus Jansson to reckon with. It seems like many of Thursday’s heroes are experiencing tiredness, even though not all played. Moyes looks frustrated with every kick.
The second half provides ample proof that Brentford are more than capable of defending their first half lead, and the west London side often seem to have twelve players, such is their ability to stifle West Ham’s creative efforts in numbers. Just ten minutes remain when Hammers finally break their self-imposed deadlock, Jarrod Bowen drilling home the loose ball for his first goal in sixteen matches.
The full comeback now looks on, as Brentford have not had a sniff at goal throughout the second half, but Thomas Frank’s two substitutes provide the unexpected impetus to launch one final injury time attack, and although Jansson’s header is superbly saved by Fabianski, the second substitute, Wissa, drills home the rebound.
A second successive 1-2 home defeat ends this time with a goal so late that there is no coming back, the final whistle blown a matter of seconds after the kick off. Food for thought, and that bus stop in Hounslow is now occupied by a queue of screaming, waving west London fans, bloated with belief. The Silence of the Ham Fans will need an effective response from their team, this full strength side that have just been outdone by the Premier League new boys, when they next take to the field at Goodison Park in a fortnight’s time.
1 Lucasz Fabiański, 3 Aaron Cresswell, 4 Kurt Zouma, 5 Vladimir Coufal, 41 Declan Rice (c), 21 Angelo Ogbonna, 28 Tomas Souček,, 8 Pablo Fornals, 9 Michail Antonio, 20 Jarrod Bowen, 22 Saïd Benrahma
Goalscorer: Jarrod Bowen
