Brentford 1-0 Aston Villa
at Community Stadium
by Gene Sylvester

THE Community Stadium played host to Brentford and Aston Villa on Saturday afternoon as both teams came into the match in search of their first three points of the season, and it was the home side that ran out 1-0 victors to give Keith Andrews his first competitive victory as the Bees manager.

Brentford started the brighter of both teams and almost took advantage of Villa’s sluggish defending when Michael Kayode beat Amadou Onana to a loose ball in the middle of the park. The Brentford right-back carried the ball forward to the edge of the box, where he found the Mikel Damsgaard.

The Danish midfielder was able to trick his way past a couple of Villa defenders, before attempting a curler into the far corner. But his effort drifted wide of the far upright

Brentford’s enterprising play reaped dividends in the 13th minute, with three of the club’s summer signings integral in the creation and scoring of the goal.

A route-one ball from goalkeeper Caoimihn Kelleher was flicked on by fellow new-signing Igor Thiago and into the path of Brentford debutant Dango Ouattara.  

The ex-Bournemouth man’s pace allowed him to beat Pau Torres to the loose ball and evade the Frenchman’s challenge before bearing down on Emi Martinez’s goal, where the striker’s first effort was saved by the Villa keeper. But the rebound fell fortuitously back to Outarra who was able to slot into an empty net.

Villa’s efforts at the Brentford goal were few and far between in the first 45 minutes.

Captain John Mcginn was able to fashion a fairly tame left-footed effort at goal from the edge of the box, but despite Brentford goalkeeper Kelleher seeing it late, courtesy of the ball flying through a host of bodies, he was still able to parry the ball away from goal with his left boot without much fuss.

The main talking point of the first half came just before half-time when a Koyode long throw, which had caused the Villa defence problems all afternoon, tempted Martinez to come and punch.

The Argentinian fell to the ground after appearing to simply collide with Nick Collins and Sepp Van Den Berg , both competing in the air, with Van Den Berg’s header dropping to Damsgaard just inside the 18-yard area.

The Dane’s instinctive strike was crisp, flying into the unguarded net, but the goal was swiftly ruled out by VAR for a foul on Martinez by Collins which seemed extremely harsh on the home side, considering the Brentford captain had his back to the keeper, with the Martinez actually initiating the contact.

The second half did see the away side offer slightly more threat going forward, but on the whole, striker Ollie Watkins starved of any real service to threaten his former side.

Emiliano Buendia, a first half substitute for the injured Boubacar Kamara, created an opportunity for Morgan Rogers immediately after half-time, but his left-footed effort was charged down brilliantly by Kayode and a few minutes later, the Argentinian midfielder’s attempted overhead kick from 12 yards out flew high and wide of the Brentford goal.

It was a morale-boosting win for Andrews and his men following the summer departures of Thomas Frank and a couple of high profile players in Bryan Mbuemo and Christian Norgaard.

And with Yoane Wissa’s future still up in the air, new signing Outtara’s winner would have come as a welcome relief to the Brentford fans that life after the aforementioned departures may not be so bleak after all.