Brentford 3 Stuart Attwell 1. Despite the best endeavours of the man in the middle, Newcastle United were blown off the park by the brilliant Bees on Sunday afternoon.
A game dominated by the visitors’ non-stop thuggery, diving, and cheating finally swung the way of a relentless Brentford team. Keith Andrews’ footballing terminators kept going and going until they got the win.
It was a victory that came despite the ref letting anything and everything slide. Turning a blind eye to any Newcastle transgression. Allowing them to get away with so much time-wasting that 5 and then 11 minutes of additional time were added on at the end of each half.
Mr. Attwell’s decision-making (surely an oxymoron if ever we’ve heard one) culminated in an atrocious low when he opted to book Dango Ouatarra for ‘simulation’ rather than point to the spot when the pace man was chopped in the box by the ever-clumsy Dan Burn.
We shouldn’t have to start here, given the eventual outcome, but he was appalling. The visitors matched him but then again, given the freedom to do so, then wouldn’t they?
Their time spent on the ground or killing the ball was as frustrating as their sudden rush to keep the game moving when 2-1 down was miraculous.
So we shouldn’t have to start here, but, if anything, we must because it made the eventual outcome of the game all the sweeter.
Brentford were dominant from the off. Schade’s early header from a Henderson cross was the first threat. The pressure was building as the ball pinballed around the box. Damsgaard’s free-kick causing mayhem and chaos. Last gasp defending and smart saves from Nick Pope preserving Newcastle’s modesty.
Kevin Schade setting off on one monumental box-to-box run where, in hindsight, being greedy rather than trying to lay it off as he reached the other end may well have resulted in the game’s opener. Instead, that came from the Magpies on 27 minutes.
Harvey Barnes fired home under Kelleher after finding rare space in the Bees’ box. He did well to shimmy clear of the pursuing defenders before delivering the ultimate lesson in possession and chances (not much of either) versus finishing (clinical, at least in that instant).
The Magpies hadn’t had a sniff in front of goal prior, but when the chance came, they took it. Something all the more frustrating given they ended the game with a pitiful XG of just 0.42.
0-1 it stayed. The interval giving everyone a chance to catch their breath and wonder how Brentford were behind. Yet if there was any doubt about the home team’s determination to get into this game it was immediately dispelled. The Bees flying out of the traps and continuing to turn the screw. It felt inevitable that the pressure would tell, and within ten minutes of the restart, it had.
Michael Kayode with the throw-in. Taken long and ending up in the back of the net (I’m feeling déjà vu). This time, it was Schade in the role of the executioner. Sven Botman getting in the way and helping it through to the German.
Pope nowhere and only able to watch it go into the net. The smile on Schade’s face said it all. The terrace wits behind the goal, cheering on ‘England’s number four’ as the home team celebrated a goal that had felt like it had been coming since the off.
With that, the floodgates opened. The Bees rampant. Pouring forwards. Kayode and Outtara breaking at their leisure. The electric pace, terrifying. Dan Burn is an accident waiting to happen. There was a palpable feeling that if we just kept running at him, he’d be sent off before he was subbed off.
Attwell’s aforementioned penalty box injustice only riling up the Brentford players and supporters even more. Messages flooding in from those watching at home that it was about as stonewalling a decision as we’ve ever seen, only further stoking the supporter emotion.
Confusion and frustration, perhaps, but the Bees kept going. Asserting their authority until, with the clock was on 78 minutes, Burn stuck out another lazy leg and there was no escape this time.
It looked like a softer one, let’s be honest. Like a knob of warm butter, as one North Stand observer noted. Certainly, if compared to the previous. VAR ruled in favour of Brentford, however, and whilst there might have been an element of ‘Ley de Compensación’ (that ‘levelling up of earlier errors’ we mentioned in the Liverpool post-match article), Igor Thiago was able to make immediate amends.
We had to suffer the interminable wait of Newcastle time killing. The complaining. The protests. The red card for Burn. The VAR review. The abdication of Pope, who had taken an awkward tumble earlier, for reserve keeper Aaron Ramsdale.
How Igor Tiago kept his composure, I have no idea, but well done that man as he fired it low into the net to give Brentford the lead.
2-1. The replacement ‘keeper reminded he was “England’s number five” after completing his first meaningful action – fishing the ball from the back of the net for the restart. Then again, the crowd were on fine form all afternoon with Wissa getting the full treatment from the get-go.
The Bees had the lead. Newcastle a man down. Their powers of recuperation now matched only by their somewhat bizarre desperation to suddenly keep alive a game they’d spent the previous 80-odd minutes trying to destroy. A brief flurry down the Brentford end was nothing more than that.
The eleven minutes time added on then spurring the Bees to one final push. Igor Thiago, even though he must have been knackered, having the presence of mind and fleetness of foot to launch himself after Malick Thiaw’s woeful backpass, get on to the ball, and leave Ramsdale no chance.
Game over, man. Game over. 3-1 Brentford. There could still have been a fourth, but nobody cared. Atwell finally ending a horror afternoon for himself – imagine having the temerity to show Kevin O’Connor a yellow card – and Newcastle.
The Bees’ fans pushed to ever higher levels of delirious celebration when the p.a. cranked out Freed From Desire at full time for the first and, cup draw’s aside, only time this season. The sweetest of cherries on the cake and a quite wonderful two fingers up to the ex.
An incredible afternoon. One that matched Liverpool in terms of performance but perhaps beat it in terms of satisfaction, given all those ancillary features. Well done, Keith Andrews, too, for encouraging his Brentford team to, well, push up.
Much as we could talk about it all day, instead we now move on to our usual game-by-game search for the top five players of the season. As always, five points being awarded for our star player, four for second place, three for third, etc with the totals added up game-by-game to see who ends up the eventual winner after game 38.
1st (5 points) Michael Kayode. I’ll be clear. This is one of the toughest top fives we’ve had to do. No moreso than in terms of who to leave out. The battle for the top two positions probably closest of all with two standout names.
I’m giving it to Kayode though. His physical presence was incredible. His skill with the ball at his feet something quite different. It really was next-level stuff. Switching flanks when the occasion warranted. Setting off on those surging runs forward. Either straight through the middle, down the right or, as we saw on several occasions, just starting from one corner and driving forwards on the diagonal to the other.
His trademark throw was the catalyst for the equaliser (a phrase that feels as though it should be on permanent copy/paste). Yet for me it was more the relentless energy, drive, seeming desire to touch every blade of grass and quite audacious skills on the ball that saw him really stand out all game long. Spin followed pivot followed mugging off anybody from the Saudi propaganda machine.
Did we mention he can defend, too?
2nd (4 points) Igor Thiago He’ll feel hard done by, perhaps, if he’s reading this. Thankfully, it’ll be safe to say he isn’t.
It’s not often the two-goal matchwinner doesn’t come top of the pile but Kayode was ‘that’ good. On the flip side, Igor was only just behind him. The calmness shown for the penalty absolutely crucial to completing the turnaround of a game Brentford had felt in control of but couldn’t quite put to bed – as much through the never-ending desperation of our guests.
The alertness, speed and determination to put it out of sight when he must have been dead on his feet were something else, though. I don’t know how he did it but what a feeling when he did.
He’s now a clear second in the overall Premier League goal scorers’ table with only Erling Haaland ahead of him. Not bad Igor, Not bad at all.
3rd (3 points) Dango Ouattara Like first and second, there’s also a really tough decision to be made about third and fourth.
I’m giving next place to Dango. The two obvious moments were the penalty that should have been given and the one that finally was. Both times, caused by Dango giving Dan Burn absolute nightmares. His pace causing havoc and I’m still absolutely mystified how that first incident didn’t end up with a spot kick. There are times I’d love the chance to speak to somebody at PGMO and this was one of them – moreso with the hindsight of seeing the incident again.
Don’t let it distract from Dango’s stonking performance. He may not have scored this time around, but he was relentless in his running down the wing or through the middle. Brentford suddenly versatile and the side men swapping flanks with ease when needed.
His final cross tally into the box was more than Damsgaard and Kayode combined. When you are getting those sort of numbers, then you are doing alright.
4th (2 points) Kevin Schade Like Dango, I think Kevin had his best game of the season in this one. Whilst he was named star player at Forest away, this was a thousand times the stronger performance.
Besides, in that game at The City ground it should more likely have been the award for ‘least bad in a disorganised system’.
He was blistering. Hitting that lovely groove where speed and skill operate in perfect symmetry so that everything comes together. I really wish he’d had the courage to take a shot in the aforementioned box-to-box as I suspect we could have seen goal of the season there.
Instead, we merely had to be content with the equaliser. You could see what it meant to him. It was more than the same for the fans, too.
5th (1 point) Sepp van den Berg “Why Sepp”?, asked one of the family on the walk home as I gave my thoughts as to who it would be. “Newcastle did nothing”.
That’s why. Newcastle did nothing, and it was as much down to him getting the ball clear, building the play out, but stopping anything when it did come into the box (and Kayode hadn’t got to first).
It might have been Nathan, Jordan or Yehor today. To be fair, it could have been any of the squad, but when there was threat, it seemed to me that Sepp was first in line to clear.
All of which means that Michael Kayode moves further ahead after a rare absence from our top five last week. Jordan Henderson stays second with things really hotting up just below him as three players battle it out for the bronze medal.
1st Michael Kayode – 32 points
2nd Jordan Henderson – 20 points
3rd= Yehor Yarmoliuk – 17 points
3rd= Mikkel Damsgaard – 17 points
3rd= Igor Thiago – 17 points
