Treble-hero Ben’s tribute
HAT-TRICK star Said Benrahma paid an emotional tribute to his late father after ensuring Hull had a miserable start to life without Jarrod Bowen.
Both the Algerian’s career trebles have now come against the Tigers – who are coming to terms with the deadline-day departure of top scorer Bowen and Poland winger Kamil Grosicki.
The pair’s joint £25million loss looks terminal to their fading play-off hopes.
Not even a laugh-out-loud own goal from keeper David Raya could prevent Brentford from sauntering to victory to halt a three-match winless run and keep top-two hopes alive.
Unlike Hull, the Bees kept hold of their own prize asset in Ollie Watkins.
And the £20m-rated striker rubbed salt in the wounds with his 19th of the season to help condemn Grant Mccann’s men to a fifth straight loss.
Boss Mccann said: “It can cause a bit of unrest when you lose your better players and it’s going to be a tough task to get into the
HULL CITY top six. It was always going to have an impact, but we’ve got to get over ourselves and move on.”
Hull were toothless without Bowen and Grosicki – who scored 22 of their 41 goals before Friday’s exits to West Ham and West Brom respectively.
It wasn’t just in attack where the Tigers were shambolic, with defender Reece Burke having a nightmare afternoon – ducking out of the way of the Bees’ opener, before doubling their lead with a woeful own goal.
Benrahma broke the deadlock in the 12th minute as he beat George Long from the edge of the area
He was booked for peeling off his jersey to reveal a poignant ‘Je t’aime Papa’ message in the wake of his dad’s death last week – and the 24-year-old was lucky to stay on the pitch after looking to elbow Stephen Kingsley in a clash before the break. Burke headed into his own net on 20 minutes after getting into a tangle trying to clear Watkins’ tame header.
Burke was spared the ignominy of scoring the contest’s worst own goal – Raya’s awful miscontrol allowing Ryan Tafazolli’s 50-yard ball to trickle through his legs.
Watkins restored the two-goal lead with a header from Rico Henry’s cross 13 minutes after the break, before Benrahma swept home Bryan Mbeumo’s cut-back – and then claimed the match ball.
CHELSEA