Bees’ woeful defending punished by Saints
A slick Southampton brushed aside Brentford to consign the Bees to their heaviest defeat of the season.
On a night for forget for Thomas Frank’s side, the Saints took full advantage of some woeful defending and poor goalkeeping from Alvaro Fernandez to cruise to an emphatic victory.
In an early sign of things to come, Southampton took the lead after just five minutes when the pace of Nathan Tella took him past Pontus Jansson but his goal-bound shot went behind for a corner.
James Ward-Prowse’s perfect in-swinger then evaded the Brentford defence but found the unmarked Jan Bednerak, who glanced past Fernandez.
However, that early setback did wake the Bees up and they equalised in brilliant fashion through Vitaly Janelt’s sweetly-struck volley from a Bryan Mbeumo’s cross midway through the first half with their first genuine attack
of the game.
But that joy was short-lived as Southampton retook the lead just before half-time when Ibrahima Diallo’s first-time effort bounced in front of Fernandez and onto the post before finding its way into the net off the Spaniard after the Bees could only half-clear a Ward-Prowse corner.
The Saints effectively sealed the victory less than a minute into the second half when Oriel Romeu split the Brentford defence with a perfect pass and impressive Chelsea loanee Armando Broja outpaced Kristoffer Ajer and fired home a shot that Fernandez should have kept out.
As Brentford continued to struggle with pace and movement of an impressive Saints side, the hosts added some extra gloss to the scoreline with a fourth goal 15 minutes from time.
Yet again it was a defensive calamity from the visitors as Jansson allowed a ball over the top to bounce in front of him inside the box and Scotland striker Che Adams nipped in front of the Swede and touched past Fernandez.
Brentford: Fernandez, Roerslev, Pinnock (Jensen 68), Ajer, Jansson, Janelt, Canos (Stevens 76), Baptiste (Wissa 56), Norgaard, Mbeumo, Toney. Subs: not used: Lossl, Thompson, Forss, Ghoddos, Bidstrup, Sorensen.
