Match Report – Brentford FC v Huddersfield

The historic first ever league game at the Brentford FC Community Sports Trust Stadium saw the Bees come away with 3 points. A Huddersfield team early-beleaguered with the enforced substitutions of first full back Toffolo and second, Town captain Schindler, didn’t provide any great quality but were sufficiently resilient in defence to worry the Bees.

Early concerns that Brentford were to see a repeat of last weekend’s unfortunate 1-0 loss at St Andrew’s following the mis-execution of glorious chances for Mbeumo and then-new signing Toney were put to rest early in the second half. Rico Henry, having run the ball from deep, pulled a low cross to the arriving Dasilva who converted neatly across former-Bee Ben Hamer from 20 yards.

Very neat footwork from Mbeumo in the 86th played Toney replacement Marcus Forss in on goal. The result never in doubt, Forss finished neatly through the ‘keeper. Some five minutes later that man Mbeumo proved key again as he, having received the ball on the right side of the box, stepped inside of his man and unleashed a wonderful curling effort above and beyond Hamer. Think Swansea away last year.

Mbeumo’s stellar performance is recognised in his 8.9 @WhoScored rating while @InfogolApp ‘s xG map shows that unlike the Birmingham game this fixture ended in a relatively fair score line; fairness rating 83.61 compared to last week’s 38.87, the most skewed score line that week.

What will be most pleasing is the manner in which the ball was moved through the midfield third at pace, Brentford managing to create a high xG stat while being shaded 56% to 44% on the possession front.

All-in-all, a great first day out for Thomas Frank and the first team at Lionel Road.