Macleod punishes wasteful West Brom
It was a night of frustration on two counts for the Championship’s leading scorers, who were held by a stubborn Brentford for 77 minutes before a Harvey Barnes goal broke their resistance, only to concede a stoppage-time equaliser.
Barnes fired home his eighth goal of the season, which seemed to make up for numerous chances missed earlier in a game dominated by West Bromwich Albion.
But then a lapse in concentration just as the match ticked into five minutes of added time cost them victory, substitute Lewis Macleod rising unmarked to head home an Emiliano Marcondes cross.
The point was enough to lift Darren Moore’s team into third place, but four points outside the top two. Yet Albion’s coach was upbeat.
“I haven’t seen the Brentford goal again, but we all know that it only takes a second to score and you have to keep your concentrawe tion at all times,” he said. “But I can’t complain about the performance because we dominated the game and they will be delighted to be going away with a point.”
The result is a lift for Thomas Frank, Brentford’s manager, after a run of six defeats in seven since he moved up from assistant head coach to replace Dean Smith.
“Everyone could see we were hanging in there in the first half, but in the second half we played further up the pitch and I thought were the better side,” he said. “They scored from their only chance in the second half and so I felt it was a deserved equaliser.”
The Dane also felt Barnes’s goal should not have stood, claiming a push by Dwight Gayle on Ezri Konsa that was not spotted.
Yet Albion could have been three goals up inside the first 27 minutes of a first half that began with a contender for miss of the season from Jay Rodriguez, who managed to put the ball over from barely a couple of yards after a low Barnes cross seemed to set him up for a tap-in.
Other clear chances followed, two for Hal Robson-kanu, before Matt Phillips skimmed the top of the bar from 30 yards.
Albion goalkeeper Sam Johnstone made a good save to keep out a Marcondes shot, but then the Albion breakthrough came.
Barnes collected a ball driven in from the right by Phillips, and had the dexterity to score with his left foot at the second attempt, after Chris Mepham had blocked his first. But Macleod had the last word. West Bromwich Albion