COOL VIBE KEEPS THE BEES BUZZING
All-out attack flattens Owls
BRENTFORD made it three wins in a row with a dominant performance over managerless Sheffield Wednesday.
Lasse Vibe scored his sixth goal in five games on 20 minutes and Florian Jozefzoon capped a fine performance with a tidy finish eight minutes from time as the home side produced a sensational display of attacking football.
And manager Dean Smith was unable to hide his delight as his side excelled at both ends of the pitch.
“I was really pleased,” he said. “That was as complete a performance as we’ve had all season. The only fear was that we hadn’t killed the game with the chances we had.
“I can’t remember Daniel Bentley having to make a save – they had a header from a corner but other than that, nothing. Everybody knows what we’re about with the ball but I wanted to show people what we’re good at without the ball.”
Brentford took the lead with their first shot following a sweeping move from back to front. There seemed nothing on when Nico Yennaris picked up the ball in the right-back position, but he surged forward and swapped passes with Jozefzoon before playing in Vibe, who beat his man and finished coolly past Joe Wildsmith.
It was somewhat against the run of play, but it sparked a 15minute spell in which the hosts could have netted five.
The fact that they didn’t was largely down to Wildsmith, who tipped a Ryan Woods shot over the bar, stood tall to deny Jozefzoon one-on-one, and diverted Vibe’s effort behind when he looked certain to double his tally. The one time the keeper was left with no chance Jozefzoon managed to fire Yoann Barbet’s cross over the bar from six yards.
The onslaught continued after the break. Vibe had a shot deflected over the bar, Barbet fired across the face of goal, and Sergi Canos saw a spectacular volley land on the roof of the net. Then, just when it looked like Brentford might be in with a nervy finish, Jozefzoon fired into the top corner to round off a fine counter-attack.
Wednesday, conversely, barely mustered a shot. The hapless Atdhe Nuhiu was hooked after 45 minutes in which he managed one tame header on target and contributed practically nothing else. Indeed, Nuhiu’s 11thminute header was the last effort on target the visitors managed, although substitute Lucas Joao twice headed just over from corners.
Caretaker boss Lee Bullen, who guided Wednesday to a convincing win over Nottingham Forest in his first game in charge, had no complaints about the result in his second, admitting his side had been outplayed and paying tribute to Wildsmith for keeping them in the game for so long. “We’ve gone from the highs to the lows in the space of three or four days,” he said. “The best team won the game.
“Our goalkeeper kept us in it. He’s done great again today. He’s a young boy with a massive future and he’s been fantastic for us.
“We came into the game with confidence but for parts of the game we just couldn’t produce the same movement and form as we did against Forest.
“I’ve got no complaints for the effort. I think the fans could tell that the effort was there, but effort is the minimum you require from your players.”