Stuttering Brentford suffer third successive defeat
Brentford’s slump continued as they produced probably their worst performance of the season to suffer a third successive defeat in seven days – this time to a Coventry side who were winless in five matches.
Tyler Walker scored both of Coventry’s goals – one from the penalty spot and the second from just inside the area. The Bees only forced keeper Ben Wilson into two saves, with both efforts coming from stand-in captain Mathias Jensen.
To make matters worse, Rico Henry limped off midway through the second half with what looked like a hamstring injury, and with no reserve left-back available, Mads Bech Sorensen had to move across.
Top scorer Ivan Toney missed his first game of the season, through injury, and after the defeats to Barnsley and QPR, Thomas Frank made four other changes. But the new-look Bees struggled to make an impact on their determined hosts.
Raya had already made two saves before he was unable to stop Walker’s penalty squeezing underneath him, after Henry had needlessly fouled Max Biamou, who was going away from goal.
Shortly afterwards, Jensen had his first chance when Saman Ghoddos lifted a free-kick over the wall and the Dane could not quite loop his header over Wilson. Raya then made a superb point-blank save to keep out a fierce shot from Callum O’Hare.
However, Raya was not so fortunate early in the second half when his poor goal-kick was intercepted outside the area by O’Hare, whose incisive pass found Walker, who slotted home the second.
Frank immediately made a triple substitution and of those, Josh Dasilva looked lively and tried to get the Bees back into the match.
But apart from a 25-yard Jensen effort, which was well saved by Wilson, and a Henrik Dalsgaard shot, which rolled past the far post, a comeback never looked likely.
Only 11 days ago, Brentford were top of the Championship and while they are still right in the promotion mix – that status and their record-breaking 21-game unbeaten run suddenly seem a long time ago.
Brentford: Raya, Roerslev (Dalsgaard 58), Henry (Reid 65), Sorensen, Pinnock, Janelt, Ghoddos (Dasilva 58), Jensen, Mbeumo (Fosu 58), Canos, Forss.
