Jones stung by Bees
New boss same old story for poor Stoke
NATHAN JONES admitted he was married to his former club Luton Town. He may have been questioning his grounds for divorce as he watched his honeymoon period at Stoke evaporate after a chastening defeat at Brentford.
A Ryan Shawcross own goal followed by a Said Benrahma strike for the hosts set the tone at Griffin Park, and although Benik Afobe pulled one back, they were never really in it.
Rico Henry’s second-half strike put the gloss on a scoreline that still didn’t reflect Brentford’s grip on this game.
Not the start Jones would have envisaged, then, as the Potters suffered their third league defeat in four. The 45-year-old took over from Gary Rowett on Wednesday and talked up a philosophy fans can be proud of. There was little sign of that today.
His first statement on the pitch was a change in formation, ditching 4-3-3 in favour of the 4-3-1-2 which had served him so well at Luton.
‘We came here with a brave shape and asked the team to do certain things,’ said Jones. ‘But we didn’t have the best start.
‘If I only wanted to win today, we might have done things differently.
‘We want to build something here, we are going to, but it wasn’t a good day today.
‘I have only been in two days, so we can’t revolutionise the place in that time.’ A Stoke side tinkering with a new system was always going to be an enticing prospect for a side as well drilled as Brentford and they took full advantage.
Benrahma had already seen a shot tipped behind when he swung in a corner from t he l eft on seven minutes. A deflection caused a frantic Afobe to hoof the ball off his own line, but it all proved to be in vain — his clearance cannoning back into his own goal via the face of the unfortunate Shawcross.
On 17 minutes, it got worse. Ollie Watkins, the sole change made by Thomas Frank from their last league outing against Norwich, played Romaine Sawyers in behind the defence down the right and his cutback was perfect for Benrahma to whip into the far corner.
‘I would say that is the best and most complete performance since I became head coach,’ Frank beamed at full-time.
Stoke did eventually create something and Afobe was alert when the chance fell his way after 23 minutes. Tom Ince played him through oneon-one and the former Wolves striker rifled his effort into the top righthand corner from the edge of the area.
A substitution at the break saw the ineffectual Saido Berahino removed and Peter Etebo brought on in his place. The system changed, but the direction of play did not.
Brentford started the second half as they had the first, and with their dominance came a third, Henry, darting in from the left flank with purpose and striking low and hard back across Jack Butland’s goal to find the bottom corner. It was everything the hosts deserved.