Brentford 1-1 Wolverhampton Wanderers
by Layth Yousif
at Brentford Community Stadium

THE TEN men of Wolves earned a replay after a hard-fought 1-1 draw against Brentford on Friday evening.

The result was made notable by the fact Gary O’Neil’s side played 81 minutes with only 10 men after Joao Gomes received a straight red card.

Thomas Frank’s struggling Bees came into the match having lost seven of their last eight matches, including a resounding 4-1 home defeat to O’Neil’s side the day after Boxing Day.

Yet they should have been boosted by the expulsion of Wolves No 8 Gomes with only nine minutes gone.

The drama occurred after Gomes was given a straight red card by referee Tony Harrington for going in on Bees captain Christian Norgaard.

The controversial challenge forced the Brentford No 6 to be substituted and hobbled off with what appeared to be an ankle injury, to be replaced by Vitaly Janelt.

Despite playing with an advantage, it took until the 41st minute for Frank’s side to go ahead, when Neal Maupay smashed in a left-footed drive.

The strike came following a spot of pinball in the box, as the ball ricocheted between a number of players before falling to the Bees’ No 7, who made no mistake to fire emphatically past Wolves’ keeper Jose Sa.

However, the Bees failed to make their one-man advantage count after the break.

The highlight of the game for neutrals came after Brentford were punished when Manchester City loanee Tommy Doyle equalised for the 10 men of Wolves with an absolute cracker for his first goal for the club.

The No 20 made space on the edge of the box after Jean-Ricner Bellegarde’s layoff, before unleashing an outstanding long range, left-footed drive past Brentford’s second-choice keeper Thomas Strakosha to make the score 1-1.

“I’ve never hit a shot so sweetly with my left foot,” Doyle said afterwards.

“With those balls, whenever you get the opportunity to have a shot, they move a lot, so you’ve got to try and put your foot through it. I hit it really nicely, and thankfully it went in.”

As the rain fell, and the clock ticked down, the game descended into a niggly, bad-tempered affair, with chief protagonist substitute Pedro Neto, who was at the centre of events, good and bad.

Yet that should not detract from the fact that O’Neil’s resilient Wolves deservedly earned a replay at Molineux later this month.