Brentford 4 Carlisle 0
On-loan West Brom striker Saido Berahino scored twice on his home debut as Brentford boosted their play-off bid with another emphatic victory at Griffin Park.
Until recently the Bees’ dismal home form looked likely to scupper their chances of a top-six finish. But they followed a recent 5-2 thrashing of Wycombe by destroying Carlisle in fine style.
They were 3-0 up at half-time after goals from Harlee Dean, Sam Saunders and Berahino, who added the fourth seven minutes after the break.
If Brentford, who moved up to ninth in the table, can maintain anything like this kind of momentum at home they may yet sustain a promotion challenge.
And Berahino – on as a 29th-minute substitute for the injured Gary Alexander – could be a key player while he is with them given his pace and ability – not to mention his finishing.
The 18-year-old scored six goals while on loan at Northampton earlier in the season and was far too good for Carlisle’s beleaguered defence.
It was centre-back Dean who put Uwe Rosler’s side ahead, beating keeper Adam Collin to head in Saunders’ left-wing free-kick.
The lead was doubled when Berahino bulldozed his way forward and exchanged passes with Clayton Donaldson with the loose ball dropping for Saunders, who fired under Collin from close range.
And Berahino then netted his first goal for Brentford, belting into the corner after being found by Shaleum Logan’s right-wing cross.
Keeper Simon Moore replaced Richard Lee in the Brentford goal at the interval and was called into action early in the second half, diving to his left to push away Paddy Madden’s shot.
But any prospect of a Carlisle fightback was extinguished by Berahino, who rounded off a swift counter-attack by brilliantly sweeping the ball into the corner of the net from the edge of the penalty area.
And the teenager came close to completing a hat-trick when he narrowly missed the target with another sizzling effort from a similar position.
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This post was last modified on 22/02/2012