Brentford’s dream start to the season continued at St. Andrews as The Bees put six past Birmingham City, sending a message that the squad depth built over the summer is very real. Here’s ten things we took from a St Andrew’s rout.

1. Callum Wilson Needed Six Minutes To Announce Himself
Barely off the team coach and Callum Wilson had Brentford ahead – Yehor Yarmoliuk winning the ball back in midfield, finding him quickly, and the striker turning and arrowing a deflected low effort into the bottom corner on his first competitive start for the club. “The way that Callum Wilson started his Brentford career as well – fantastic,” was the verdict from the away end, and it’s hard to argue with a goal so clinical, that early.

2. Jaidon Anthony Put On A Show
Three assists, four chances created, seven touches in the box – on his first competitive start, no less. Anthony teed up Collins for Brentford’s third, supplied the cross for Damsgaard’s fourth, then pulled the ball back for Thiago to finish himself. More than decent!

3. Nathan Collins The Goal Machine!
The Brentford captain scored at both ends of the pitch – heading in from a Janelt corner before the break, then powering home Mamadou Sangare’s inviting cross late on to make it 6-1. “How good was that? Collins. I love Collins,” was the reaction from the terraces, and leading by example from centre-back is exactly what you want from your skipper. Well, apart from a hat-trick, as the Bees fans urged him to shooooooooot whenever he touched the ball late-on.

4. Birmingham Actually Threatened For A Spell
Credit where it’s due – sort of. Demarai Gray’s leveller on 28 minutes was a proper strike, low and through a crowd of bodies, and for six minutes there was a flicker of a shock on the cards. It didn’t last. As one travelling Bee put it, “they did all right for half an hour, to be honest… but they kind of tailed off.” Our two clubs have certainly gone in very different directions since the Championship days.

5. Sangare’s Song Is Already An Anthem
Introduced after the break, Mamadou Sangare needed only minutes to get involved, and the “I Want To Dance With Sangare” classic was ringing round St Andrew’s way before he delivered the ball for Collins’ second. Two competitive games into his Brentford career and the record signing already has his own terrace anthem – what a signing he’s turning out to be and there’s a quality song to match.

6. Jannik Schuster’s Senior Debut Was Mixed
Booked for a foul that led to Birmingham’s goal, the young defender could have folded. Instead he stayed in the game, nearly got on the scoresheet with a header just wide in the second half, and made his first senior appearance in a 6-1 away win. He’ll learn from last night for sure.

7. Andrews Backed His Squad Depth – And Was Proven Right
Eight changes from the Tottenham win, with only Collins, Vitaly Janelt and Dango Ouattara retaining their places, and Keith Andrews wasn’t remotely worried about it. “I didn’t really blink an eyelid, making so many changes,” he said afterwards. “There is a huge narrative around cup games with coaches making changes, but with the squad we have, there are fine margins between who plays and doesn’t play. We needed to compete really hard to play the game we wanted. I thought overall we had a really good performance.” Given the scoreline, that’s about as understated as it gets.

8. The Bench Kept The Levels Rising
Sangare, Igor Thiago, Keane Lewis-Potter, Kevin Schade and Michael Kayode all came on and the performance only got stronger – Thiago’s first goal of the season among them, tucked in three minutes after Damsgaard had made it four. “The subs coming on really show how strong our squad is,” was the assessment in the away end, “because we were getting stronger and stronger as the match went on.” Genuinely hard to argue with that pattern repeating three games running now with the Frankfurt friendly proving no flash in the pan.

9. No Square Pegs In Round Holes
Whoever plays, Brentford play the same way – no square pegs in round holes, just players slotted into a system. That is becoming clear… although Leeds United will provide the strongest test so far this Sunday at Elland Road.

10. Wembley Talk Is Already Starting – Quietly(ish)
Round three awaits, and with back to back performances like these, there’s no shortage of optimism in the away end about how far this cup run could go. Nobody’s getting carried away publicly – it’s early days and a nine-month season – but with the strongest squad Brentford have had since promotion, the appetite for a serious run is obviously there. If the pundits are talking about silverware this campaign, then why shouldn’t we?

Catch the full St Andrew’s away-day breakdown on the podcast.

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