Frank ‘very irritated’ after Bees defeat

Thomas Frank said he was “very irritated” by Brentford’s poor performance at West Ham.

The Bees were beaten 4-2 at the London Stadium, where Jarrod Bowen scored a hat-trick for David Moyes’ side.

The result – and fellow strugglers Everton having their penalty for breaching Premier League financial rules reduced from 10 points to six after an appeal – leaves Brentford just two places and five points above the relegation zone. They have now lost 10 of their past 12 Premier League matches.

Boss Frank said: “We didn’t hit a good level individually and collectively. West Ham hit a good level and Bowen was unplayable.

“I’m very irritated about the performance because it was very unlike us. Everyone individually didn’t hit their highest level and collectively we definitely didn’t.”

Having had a major let-off when Tomas Soucek missed a sitter, contriving to shoot over following Vladimir Coufal’s cross, the visitors found themselves behind after Emerson pulled the ball back from the left for Bowen to fire past keeper Mark Flekken.

Worse followed for Brentford two minutes later. They were undone by a move started by Bowen, who drifted into the box and tucked away Coufal’s cross.

West Ham seemed to be in complete control, but were pegged back when Keane Lewis-Potter collected Ivan Toney’s pass and threaded the ball through to Neal Maupay, who fired home.

Brentford rallied but lost Ben Mee , who went off injured on the hour mark, before the Hammers again scored twice in quick succession, with Bowen heading in Mohammed Kudus’ cross to complete his hat-trick and Emerson making it four with a thumping 25-yarder.

Yoane Wissa’s goal to reduce the deficit was also a fine strike – a curling shot into the corner of the net from near the edge of the penalty area.

The injury to key defender Mee will be a concern for Brentford, who face Chelsea in a west London derby on Saturday.

“It’s something to the ankle. I don’t know exactly yet. We will assess him,” Frank said.