A brace from club-record signing Igor Thiago was the catalyst for a thumping win over League Two opposition AFC Wimbledon in the first pre-season game for the Bees.
It wasn't all plain sailing, though, as in the third-minute Joe Lewis stunned the travelling fans with a good finish from a corner by former Bee, Jake Reeves.
The goal did reflect the early phases of the game as a side made up of a mixture of first-team players and B team players struggled to connect with each other early. Brentford did, though, grow into the game eventually.
It was a first look at Yunus Emre Konak for many Bees fans, after his signing in January from Sivasspor. It was Konak's pass inside the box to club-record signing and new number 9, Igor Thiago, which was the turning point for Brentford.
Thiago's initial effort was blocked, but the ball fell back to Thiago who made no mistake with a powerful effort which beat the Wimbledon keeper to equalise.
The goal energised both Thiago and the team, with confidence restored to the side and the momentum started to flow. Thiago caught the eye with a delightful backheel, which found Mads Roerslev in acres of space on the edge of the box, but his long range effort was saved by Owen Goodman.
Fin Stevens had a brilliant game at left-back, showing the creative side to his game with crosses and killer through balls. One such example where Stevens had the vision and the technique to make a defence-splitting pass put Thiago in behind the defence for him to dink the ball delightfully over the keeper to make it 2-1 to Brentford and secure his second goal.
From there, the team never looked back and the nerves of going behind and labouring to get back into the game became a distant memory.
Just before the break, Janelt played in Wissa who was felled in the box and awarded a penalty. Wissa himself stepped up and his ice cold technique put him on the score sheet.
There were words exchanged with Thiago over whether he should take the penalty to complete a first-half hat-trick, but it appeared the Brazilian was pleased for Wissa to take the penalty in the end.
In typical pre-season style, there were 10 changes for Brentford at half-time, and the one survivor of the first-half, young goalkeeper and former Wimbledon man Matt Cox, was replaced at the hour mark as well.
One of those who came on was trialist Stuart Armstrong. The 32-year-old represented Scotland at the Euros, and has been training with the club since he opted against signing a contract extension for Southampton.
Armstrong was a key member of the squad as Southampton were promoted last season, scoring 5 goals and registering 7 assists from 42 appearances. He picked up a hamstring injury which kept him out of the final three games of the season and the playoffs.
After a commanding start to the second half, the fourth Brentford goal came in the 66th minute when Schade took advantage of a sloppy pass to break free of the defence. Schade showed great composure to round the goalkeeper after a fake shot, before lofting the ball perfectly into the net as a desperate defender scrambled in vain to try and clear it off the line.
In the 77th minute the Brentford scoring was complete as Mbeumo showed good skill to fashion himself a chance in the box before firing a rocket into the top corner. His left-footed strike beat the keeper for pure power at the near post.
The team would have liked to have kept the score at 5-1, but a cross into the box from James Tilley saw Mat Steven's improvise to score an acrobatic header which crept past Valdimarsson at the far post.
Thomas Frank said of the result:
“I’m happy with the performance and that’s always the most important thing. our of our main offensive players scored, which is very positive.”
On Igor Thiago’s two-goal debut, Frank added:
“Positive experiences boost confidence and it’s always nice for a striker to score. There’s still a lot to go on, and he’ll of course need to do it in the Premier League, but it’s a good start.”
Brentford are next in action in the much anticipated friendly against Benfica this coming Thursday, kicking off at 20:00 at the Estadio da Luz.
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