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Regardless of Fulham’s mastery in this match, it was only extremely cruel for Brentford to be denied victory and a place in the top half of the Premier League so late.
They went into stoppage time early; they finished him defeated.
Thomas Frank and his players looked completely dejected as they left the Craven Cottage pitch, beaten, bruised, beaten by a Harry Wilson double in injury time which killed off what would have, for Brentford, been a masterclass defense of a victory.
It was a strange delusion that the scoreboard read 1-0 Brentford when referee Stuart Attwell sounded for half-time, such was Fulham’s measure of control. The Bees’ share of the ball was then only 35%, and Emile Smith Rowe and Reiss Nelson were causing Mads Roerslev all sorts of problems on the Brentford right-hand side.
For all the pre-match talk on Sky Sports coverage and at Thomas Frank’s press conference about not wasting possession by shooting from long range, it is, with some inevitable irony, a long-range strike that sent Brentford into half-time ahead.
Mikkel Damsgaard may have been outplayed by the much wider Sander Berge for most of the evening, but his only significant contribution of the match saw him latch onto a poor touch from Calvin Bassey. What a dazzling finale followed. Vitaly Janelt headed to the corner.
In football as everywhere else, success breeds the expectation of success, and Bryan Mbeumo’s superb exploits this season seem to be playing on his mind rather than supporting him.
The broad, stocky man could be seen cursing himself for a lack of service on the right, and then in a scuffle near the corner flag with Bassey, it was he, rather than Bassey, who had gone too far and committed a unnecessary fault born of frustration. .
No goal this time for Mbeumo, but his teammates were still attentive to his movements. On one occasion, Christian Norgaard looked up, saw Mbeumo advancing and didn’t think twice before making a pass into the channel.
Before Janelt’s goal and especially in the 66 minutes that followed, the Bees dug deep throughout normal time. The two Merseyside clubs are the only teams with higher aerial duel win rates than the Bees this season, and Brentford were making the most of their height advantage over their hosts.
Only Ipswich Town and Wolves have conceded more goals this season than Brentford. How happy Frank will have been with their resolute performance at Craven Cottage, then – until injury time, when Wilson had the last word… twice.
Brentford returns across west London, distraught. This one might take a while to come back. Bournemouth visit Gtech on Saturday. Will clarity have returned by then? Time will tell.
