THE MAU SHOW
Misfiring Neal puts Bees on road to success
NEAL MAUPAY was left praying with thanks as divine intervention deserted Luton.
Brentford’s on-loan Everton striker netted only his second goal of the season after a ricochet fell into his path before he saluted the gods.
Moments later Ben Mee grabbed a second with a heavily-deflected header.
Relegation-threatened Luton pulled one back via Jacob Brown but the Bees added a third through Shandon Baptiste as the visitors’ blocks did not fall kindly.
Prior to their misfortune, the Hatters had shown the spirit needed to stay in the top flight with a heroic defensive display.
Brentford were hit by an injury in the warm-up to Kristoffer Ajer, with Saman Ghoddos coming in as a late replacement.
This was a League Two fixture just over 14 years ago and the first half was typical fourth-tier fare.
It took 27 minutes for either side to fashion a serious chance. Vitaly Janelt crossed from the left with Yehor Yarmoliuk’s shot deflecting wide.
Luton were battling gamely but struggled to get out of their own half.
Bryan Mbeumo had a hat-trick of efforts all missing the target.
And the half was best summed up by visiting keeper Thomas Kaminski receiving a booking for timewasting.
Luton’s keeper got away with a mistake when he fumbled Yoane Wissa’s tame effort but got to the rebound in the nick of time.
Hatters skipper Tom Lockyer was in the wars and replaced at the break, with Brown coming on as a more attacking option.
That proved to be a big moment as Luton lost their way at the back.
But Brentford were handed plenty of fortune. Wissa’s 49th-minute cross from the left was deflected on by Mee with
Amari’i Bell’s attempts at a clearance falling straight to Maupay who could not miss.
Frank Onyeka’s shot then went just wide after Luton had given the ball away.
Another big moment went against the Hatters as Mee’s 57th-minute header from Mbeumo’s cross took a major deflection off Carlton Morris and went in.
Luton looked out of it but got back into the game 14 minutes from the end when Brown cut in and finished well left-footed.
But Brentford were able to kill the game off five minutes later when Keane Lewis-potter’s effort was saved by Kaminski and Baptiste buried the rebound.
BRENTFORD: Flekken 6; Ghoddos 7 (Roerslev (77) 6), Mee 8, Pinnock 7, Janelt 6; Onyeka 6, Norgaard 7, Yarmoliuk 6 (Baptiste (70) 7); Mbeumo 7 (Lewis-potter (77) 7), Maupay 7 (Peart-harris (90) 5), Wissa 7 LUTON: Kaminski 6; Mengi 6 (Giles (76) 6), Lockyer 7 (Brown (46) 7), Osho 6; Kabobe 6, Mpanzu 6 (Clark (60) 6), Barkley 7, Bell 5; Chong 6, Ogbene 6 (Townsend (60) 6); Morris 5 (Adebayo (61) 5) STAR MAN: Ben Mee – Scored a rare goal and was also involved in Brentford’s first. Reliable at back as usual. REF: Anthony Taylor 6