Brentford and Sunderland shared six goals in this entertaining, topsy-turvy clash at Griffin Park; however, the Bees were left kicking themselves that after going ahead inside the first ten minutes, two avoidable goals ultimately cost them dear.

Brentford started brightly and heaped the pressure on from the start, which paid off on eight minutes when a well crafted move saw a shot rebound off the post straight to man-of-the-match Nico Yenaris who made no mistake from six yards out. Many inside the ground would have shared the belief that Brentford would then go on and put Sunderland to the sword, but the Black Cats had done their homework and hit back by exposing our weaknesses.

A long ball over the top once again caught the Bees napping, Lewis Grabban breaking with speed before producing a great finish to level things up on 13 mins – then Brentford shot themselves in the head twice.

Firstly, the usually dependable, Daniel Bentley punched the ball into his own net after misjudging a high cross in the wind, then Ryan Woods committed a silly, needless foul inside the area in first half stoppage time… Grabban bagging a brace on his Griffin Park return and giving the home side a real uphill struggle to get back into the game.

Thankfully, we didn’t have to wait long for a response, and Jozefzoon produced a moment of magic when he curled home a free kick after Ollie Watkins had been felled outside the area… that lifted the atmosphere and certainly have us belief that there was at least a point up for grabs again.

And with 12 minutes remaining, the come-back was complete when Jozefzoon, who had his most effective game of the season so far, saw his shot cannon off Neil Maupay to wrong-foot the Sunderland keeper and find the back of the net.

The match went end-to-end for the final ten minutes or so, with the home fans hoping their team could carve out one more goal to top an eventful afternoon, but in the end they had to settle for another draw.

Dean Smith said after the match; “I was angry at the break and I am still angry now because we gave them three goals. I can’t remember them creating any chances apart from the ones we gave them.

As you will hear from the Pride of West London post-batch podcast, and the Beesotted video (both links above) there were some interesting thoughts from fans of both clubs after the game and back in the pub after we’d all paused to take stock of the action.

That’s the second time this season Brentford have scored three goals at home and not won, which is a factor that shows that some of our defensive frailties are still costing us dear.

Still, that’s six matches unbeaten, but with the tricky journey to Preston North End ahead of us, we really need to tighten things up at the back again, a turn these draws into wins.

Dave Lane
@beesotted100

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