Who knew home comforts could be as thrilling as this? No warm slippers and a dressing gown by the fire when it comes to Brentford, who under Thomas Frank have made a habit of these rip-roaring home wins that have launched them into European contention.
Goals from Bryan Mbeumo, Yoane Wissa, Nathan Collins and Kevin Schade secured a scintillating 4-2 victory over Newcastle and made it seven wins from eight at the Gtech Community Stadium and lifted them up to seventh in the Premier League.
Just think where Brentford could be if they had not taken just a single point on the road all season.
They don’t do it gently here. A 5-3 win against Wolves earlier in the season, 4-3 against Ipswich, 3-2 against Bournemouth. With four goals shared at the break, it looked like it could be another game that would swing on the finest moments but, by the end, with four in the bag and Newcastle deflated, cold and devoid of ideas, the home fans could enjoy what was left of the ride.
It could even have been five when Mbeumo nabbed the ball from Nick Pope miles from goal and was only denied by a late goal-line clearance by Dan Burn.
‘I think the character and the intensity we played with was very impressive,’ said Brentford head coach Frank. ‘To be able to keep scoring, in a way it’s unreal, but I try to enjoy it. The amount that Brentford have scored in the league, I don’t think any of us, including me, understand how crazy good that is.
Kevin Schade (right) and Bryan Mbeumo (left) both scored to seal an impressive win for Brentford
Thomas Frank’s Brentford side lie sixth place and are now just four points off Man City in fourth
Eddie Howe’s men are winless in four league games and languish down in 12th place in the table
‘I’m not too concerned [about the way form]. I think there’s not too much in it. I think there’s always coincidences in this. It’s still been overall good performances. I think we’ve been hard done by in some of the away games but we need to keep improving.’
For Newcastle, how long ago that ding-dong against Liverpool on Wednesday night and a premature referee’s whistle away from a victory over the leaders feels. That’s two points from a possible 12. Ten points from their last 11 games.
The Magpies have become much too easy to play against and the second half was so bad that manager Eddie Howe was left apologising to the fans, questioning the attitude of the players and wondering whether Storm Darragh played its part.
‘There was a willingness to win and willingness to fight but I don’t think it was strong enough,’ said Howe.
‘I’m not making excuses but I don’t know whether the weather played a part because there was obviously a very strong wind today, I don’t know if that’s a coincidence but we didn’t attack as well in the second half as we did in the first half.
‘I think today was a difficult game to come on [as a substitute] to because of the conditions and trying to pick up the speed of the game, naturally you’re going to be cold.
‘I would like to thank everyone who came today and I’m really sorry for what we had delivered and my pledge is we will always work as hard as we can to put it right.’
There was a reason Brentford and Newcastle were smack bang in the middle of the table before kick-off with only a single goal difference to separate them.
Alexander Isak brought Newcastle level after Mbeumo’s early goal for Brentford
Yoane Wissa put Brentford back in front after a mistake by Harvey Barnes
Barnes atoned for his error by bringing Newcastle level again, but that was as good as it got for the Magpies
They can thrill and frustrate in equal measure. Half slick and vibrant and packed with quality, half sloppy and loose and unable to seize any sort of control.
And so it was hardly surprising when they coughed up a first half filled with four goals that all told the same story.
Mbeumo plucked Christian Norgaard’s cross-field pass out the air, cut inside on his left foot, breezed past Lewis Hall and popped it into the left side of Nick Pope’s goal. A slice of quality.
Alexander Isak levelled three minutes later, nipping in ahead of Nathan Collins to nod Jacob Murphy’s ball into the net for his fifth goal in his last seven league outings.
And yet that should have become six in seven when Isak robbed the ball inside the Brentford and raced clear on goal, rounded Mark Flekken but spent so long deciding where he’d prefer to roll the ball into the gaping net, he gave the goalkeeper to scramble up, thrust out a hand and scoop it away from under Isak’s feet.
If that was sloppy, it was nothing on Harvey Barnes who handed Brentford their second. Into the side in place of a fatigued Anthony Gordon, Barnes played a loose pass that was seized upon by Yoane Wissa who pounced and in from the edge of the area.
Collins’ short-range finish gave Brentford the lead in the 56th minute and they never looked back
Wissa blew a kiss to the crowd in celebration but should really have directed it in Barnes’s direction.
Barnes, however, took just four minutes to make up for his error when he found himself unmarked inside the Brentford box and rifled a second equaliser into the bottom corner.
From there, with the second half under way, Newcastle wilted. A simple direct free-kick taken from just inside the Brentford half by Flekken bounced over every Newcastle head and Collins gladly poked in in.
Newcastle huffed and puffed but created little and it was left to Mbeumo, with the clock ticking into stoppage time, to play in substitute Kevin Schade to prod it past Pope and put the contest to bed.
