Match Report: Brentford 4-0 Gillingham
Two goals a piece for Charlie MacDonald and Myles Weston were enough to see off Gillingham at Griffin Park on Saturday.
Andy Scott made a few changes to the side that drew against
Southampton in our previous match, with new loan signing John Akinde partnering MacDonald in preference to Ben Strevens or Carl Cort, and Sam Saunders, impressive when he came on as a subsitute in the previous match, was preferred on the right side of midfield to Sam Wood or another new loan signing, Lionel Ainsworth. A third loanee, Toumani Diagouraga, made his home debut in the middle of the park, this time because Marcus Bean had picked up a knock and wasn’t fit enough to even make the match day squad. Elsewhere it was the usual selections, Leon Legge and Tommy Smith continuing in front of Wojciech Szczesny, the latter two having their loan stays extended to three months and the end of the season respectively.
Perhaps the changes disrupted our concentration as Gillingham started the game much more brightly, and in truth should have been in front within a few minutes. Simeon Jackson outpaced Smith to reach a long ball over the top, and although Szczesny got a hand to the Canadian international’s shot, everyone, myself included, thought it was in. However, somehow tha ball bobbled onto the inside of the post and fortunately fell to a Bees player. That wasn’t Gillingham’s only chance either. They had some sustained possession in and around the Brentford penalty area and had a couple more efforts on goal, although neither severely tested our keeper.
Gillingham then created another golden opportunity as their right back Barry Fuller played a perfectly weighted through ball for the onrushing striker to pounce on. Only problem for Fuller was that he was attempting a backpass, and it went straight to MacDonald who found himself one on one with former Bees keeper Alan Julian. MacDonald went past Julian and went down, and despite the keeper’s protests (at first he seemed to be insisting he got the ball, and then was suggesting that MacDonald had dived) the penalty was given. MacDonald picked himself up and put the spot kick away low to Julian’s right to give the home side a slightly fortuitous lead.
The Bees got anoher slice of luck a short while after when Diagouraga went down in the area and the referee awarded another penalty. There didn’t seem much in the challenge, as although the defender didn’t get the ball he didn’t seem to get much of his man, and Diagouraga seemed more to stumble and go down rather than be hacked down or dive. No-one, not even the crowd, seemed to protest or shout for the foul to be given, but there you go. MacDonald stepped up for a second time and this time blasted the ball high into the top right hand corner, giving Julian absolutely no chance.
By this time GIllingham were getting a bit rattled, and the constant pressing by MacDonald and Akinde whenever a defender or their keeper attempted a clearance was forcing a few mistakes. Once such scuffed clearance was knocked forward again into the path of Weston on the left who ran at his defender, got into the area and blasted a low show between Julian and his near post.
The second half was a more lacklustre affair as Gillingham pressed without really ever threatening to score, apart from one mishit shot over the bar from a few yards out, but we seemed happy to sit back and sit on our three goal lead, which is fair enough really. A Brentford counter attack here or there looked dangerous though, exploiting the pace of Weston on the left and substitute Ainsworth on the right, the latter impressing in his cameo appearance. It was Weston though who finished the scoring for the afternoon, again breaking on the right and shooting low from a tight angle towards the near post. Although he again beat the keeper, he hit the post but, with the home side getting all the luck as per usual, the ball bounced out, hit Julian on the back of the head and went in.
It was an odd match really, as we could easily have been at least a goal down early on, but ended the first half 3-0 up. I don’t think we were lucky to be ahead; in fact our play after the first goal warranted the lead, with Saunders on the right consistently
threatening and playing good balls into the box, as well as forcing a good save from Julian from a free kick and hitting the woodwork later on. Ainsworth, Saunders’ right wing rival, also looked threatening but in a different way. He was more about pace and beating his man, and although Saunders did get past his full back on more than one occasion, you feel Ainsworth should do it with more regularity. Time will tell whether he can put the same sort of quality into the box once he beats his man though.
Up front, it was good to see MacDonald get a couple on the scoresheet, even if they were both from the spot. Charlie deserves it after putting in 150% in every match and doing so much work on his own up front. Now that he’s got Akinde up there with him, who looked a real threat on occasions but at times looked a bit short of match practice, it might take a bit of the workload off of Charlie’s shoulders and allow him to get into better positions in and around the box.
At the back we were, first few minutes apart, solid as always. You fancy Szczesny to save pretty much anything that comes his way, and today he did, while Smith and Legge were two rocks that dominated aerially all day long, with the latter as ever looking threatening at every set piece. Ryan Dickson had a quiet game by his standards, but his fellow full back Danny Foster again had an excellent game and has really become one of the most dependable players in the team. It probably helps having a decent defence alongside him and his old Dagenham mate Saunders in front of him, but he seems solid defensively and got forward well, getting a few good crosses into the area on both feet.
Was the scoreline a bit flattering? Perhaps. Gillingham were by no means the worst team that we’ve played this season, but we definitely deserved to win. I guess that’s all that counts really.
