Friday night stinging by Bees: Brentford 2-0 Brighton photos
As is now traditional when Brighton travel to Brentford, Tony Bloom in the away end features heavily in your fan photos – although a 2-0 defeat on this occasion made him a less happy man than normal.
It was the first time the Albion had suffered an away loss against Matthew Benham’s Bees since 2014 and their first ever at the Gtech Stadium.
Last season’s visit had ended in a 1-0 win to Brighton thanks to Leandro Trossard striking with two minutes remaining.
On this occasion though, not even the substantial win bonus than Bloom would have put up, nor the prospect of earning three points for Enock Mwepu could help the Albion overcome a Brentford side with the inspired duo of Ivan Toney at one end and David Raya at the other.
Mwepu was forced to retire earlier in the week after the diagnosis of a hereditary heart condition. Had he continued playing, then there was a strong chance the problem would have proven fatal.
The Albion wore t-shirts in support of Mwepu during their warm up. The away end was a sea of Zambian flags at one point with Mwepu’s name sung for 10 minutes straight at the start.
Brentford showed their class by displaying Mwepu’s image and a message on the screens across the Gtech Stadium. All that was missing was a win for The Computer.
Brighton really should have scored at the very least. They rustled up 21 shots, seven of which were on target. A combination of poor finishing and some superb saves from Raya meant nothing stuck on the scoreboard.
The Albion’s inability to find the back of the net was in stark contrast to Toney. The Bees striker claimed a brace via a backheel finish through the legs of Adam Webster and a penalty converted after he had been brought down in the box by Joel Veltman.
Neither Webster nor Veltman could get close to Toney all evening, who must surely go to the World Cup next month with England.
A reminder that capable Premier League strikers do not have to cost the Earth if you are willing to look in the lower leagues.
If you have any photos you would like included in our Brentford 2-0 Brighton gallery, please e-mail them to wearebrighton@hotmail.co.uk or tweet them to us @wearebrighton
