BRYAN MIGHTY
Brentford 3 Southampton 1: Bees quickly get over Ivan Toney exit as Mbeumo double sends Saints packing
Ramsdale suffers on Saints debut as ruthless Bees punish dozy defending
BRYAN MBEUMO slid to his knees to milk the applause of Ivan Toney after the first goal of an important double.
Just hours after completing his deadline-day £40m move to Al Ahli, England international Toney was back at the GTech Community Stadium.
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Once again, he was a spectator, having watched his former club start their season in confident fashion from the sidelines while he finalised his move.
So there he was, after 43 minutes up on his feet and applauding with the rest of the home fans.
Mbeumo had just shown again that he has what it takes to step up to be the club’s no. 1 marksman – although it was Southampton who had rather shot themselves in the foot.
Their defence had wobbled twice in quick succession as they tried to play their way out through Brentford’s tight press.
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The first time, Jan Bednarek’s long leg came to the rescue, deflecting Mbeumo’s cross into the arms of debutant goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale.
But the second time saw Taylor Harwood-Bellis surrender possession and Kevin Schade hit a powerful low drive against the foot of the post.
This time the ricochet was kinder to Brentford and the unmarked Mbeumo steered the ball into the opposite corner with the side of his left foot.
After celebrating his goal, Mbeumo spotted a TV camera and, pointing his fingers straight down the lens, pulled an imaginary trigger.
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What value a decent sharp-shooter in what already looks set to be another tightly-contested Premier League season? Certainly Southampton trudged in at the break wishing for a similar sort of ruthlessness where it mattered in front of goal.
Twice the visitors’ no. 9 Adam Armstrong seemed to have been put through only to fail to get a convincing shot in at goal.
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Worse, though, was to come in first-half injury time.
A deflected cross looped perfectly towards him just five yards out from the middle of the goal. Swinging his right foot in a hopeless air shot, Armstrong had the embarrassment of watching as the ball hit his standing leg and bounced away to safety.
He failed to appear for the second half having been replaced by Cameron Archer.
Southampton’s return to the Premier League had so far seen them enjoy a lot of possession in their opening two games with nothing whatsoever to show for it.
Manager Russell Martin hoped that a 5-3 EFL Cup win at Cardiff in midweek might release the shackles after 1-0 defeats to Newcastle and Nottingham Forest.
Joe Aribo’s bending header scraped the bar inside six minutes from a corner won when Kyle Walker-Peters’ shot was bundled around the near post by Brentford goalkeeper Mark Flekken.
However, even with the change of personnel at the break, they struggled to find the cutting edge to get past Thomas Frank’s well-drilled defence.
It is a concern as they sit at the foot of the table going into the international break in a season where the newly-promoted clubs were always tipped to struggle.
The dream, of course, for the Championship sides is to ‘do a Brentford’ but the much-praised system Martin introduced after arriving at St Mary’s Stadium had little impact against the Frank-ball they have been playing here for six years now.
Brentford mopped up anything that came at them and simply pounced when the moment was right, with Mbeumo more than ready to supply the killer touch.
Southampton’s defence got in a hopeless muddle again in the 65th minute.
Bednarek and Jack Stephens almost left the ball to each other and a swift interception and two quick passes later, MBeumo was once again in view of goal with the ball at his feet.
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His low drive left Ramsdale with no chance and this time he went for a crossed claws motif to mark his third of the season.
That followed his opening day strike against Crystal Palace and left him just two shy of reaching the 50-goal mark in the Premier League.
Still Brentford were not finished.
Yoane Wissa bundled in the third at the far post after a looping flick-on had left Ramsdale somewhat stranded.
His Arsenal career was effectively ended when Brentford’s former goalkeeping hero arrived at the Emirates two year ago.
All afternoon he had been listening to how he was “just a s*** David Raya” according to the Bees fans.
Now the Southampton no. 30 was subjected to a new chant.
“He’s got the score on his back,” he sang.
The worrying thing for the England stopper is that there were still 21 minutes plus stoppages still to play.
A spate of substitutions finally disrupted Brentford’s rhythm and ensured Ramsdale’s debut did not become any more disastrous.
Instead, an outside of the foot toe-poke from Yukinari Sugawara which he clipped in off the far post from 15 yards finally gave the Southampton fans something to cheer about.
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“We’ve scored a goal!” the bellowed ironically – their first in the Premier League for 15 months.
They need to find many more from somewhere if this is not going to be a very brief visit back to the top flight indeed.
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