They’re all talking about Kevin
Brentford 4, Leicester City 1; 30.11.24
It was a long time coming, but Kevin Schade’s trio of goals was worth waiting for. Coach Thomas Frank might have been by frustrated by the initial injury that restricted the winger’s appearances for much of the year, yet the manner of his hat-trick was nicely timed, being exactly a week after his twenty-fourth birthday. Nice job, Kevin!
Leicester, experiencing a stormy first half to the season, found the German a handful from the start. He was not alone: the Bees looked sharp from the opening whistle and what with skipper Christian Nørgaard having been let out of jail, so to speak, following a ludicrous sending off during the previous match away at Everton, the starting eleven promised much.
Mikkel Damsgaard was especially on song – when hasn’t he been since taking on the duties of playmaker-in-chief? – and everything suggested another grand afternoon at the Gtech Community Stadium.
Only this being Brentford, Leicester managed to take the lead after 21 minutes in what was, from memory, their first foray into the home half. Jamie Vardy, still a frequent danger despite approaching 38, provided the pass that enabled Facundo Buonanotte to beat Mark Flekken, whereupon the keeper waved farewell to yet another clean sheet in a series of largely goal-laden victories.
The delighted visiting fans were soon celebrating with choruses of ‘We’re winning away – how crap you must be’ (or words to that effect). But only until the team as a whole and Schade in particular retaliated, Kevin serving Yoane Wissa with a cross that enabled the striker to tap the ball past keeper Mads Hermansen. (The goal saw Wissa draw level with Bryan Mbeumo, with eight each in the list of the season’s scorers.)
But it was to be Schade’s day. Four minutes later he seized on Mbeumo’s slightly diverted cross to beat Hermansen once more, and then do it again in the time added at the end of the half, when he chipped neatly another of Damsgaard’s collection of penetrating balls that left the defence floundering.
After the interval the City appeared to wake up and actually challenge the home defence, although not before Wissa unleashed a shot that struck Hermansen in the midriff – he wasn’t having the best of days – and then, almost on the hour, Schade completed his hat-trick.
This time it was Nathan Collins – another excellent performance from him, possibly hoping to eradicate the misery of the Irish Republic’s 5-0 thumping at the hands of England in the international break – who provided the assist.
Coach Frank, as is his wont, fed players from the bench once the game was safe, including forward Igor Thiago, whose injury in a pre-season friendly had inhibited his presence upfront. A big fellow who promised more in the weeks to come, he wears the number 9 shirt, once in the possession of England cap Ivan Toney.
I reminded my mate Charlie of the sterling work the striker had contributed to Brentford before his move to the Saudi Pro League club Al-Ahli.
‘Ivan who’, said Charlie.
The Bees’ victorious lap of the pitch was wholly deserved, especially with the three points won seeing them safely into the top half of the Premier League table. Anyone feeling sorry for Leicester, last seen in Brentford boarding a coach bound for the Midlands, need only to take note of their next result – a 3-1 win over West Ham United.
As for Schade, he will hopefully be on the next rung of the ladder in a team that has the potential to continue climbing.
Brentford (4-2-3-1): Flekken; Lewis-Potter, Pinnock, Collins, Van den Berg (Roerslev 83); Jensen (Janelt 42), Nørgaard (Yarmoliuk 70); Schade (Thiago 70), Damsgaard (Fabio Carvalho 70), Mbeumo; Wissa.
Leicester (3-4-2-1): Hermansen; Okolij (Vestergaard 35), Coady, Faes; Thomas, Ndidi, Justin, Southmare (Skipp 64); Buonanotte (Mavididi 64), Ayew (De Cordova-Reid 80); Vardy (Daka 64).
And they’re still talking about Kevin
Brentford 4, Newcastle United 2; 07.12.24
This was the finest performance by Brentford in their Premier League history. A bold statement indeed, but don’t take my word for it. Alan Shearer, one of the finest strikers in the game over many years, was so taken with the demolition of Newcastle – especially in the second half, I suspect – that on Match of the Day he asked host Gary Lineker to relay his admiration to head coach Thomas Frank during the review of the game. Good? They were sensational and here’s the way that a damp and murky afternoon unfolded at the Gtech Community Stadium.
To begin with, Frank’s starting line-up was unfamiliar to the Bees’ faithful. No hat-trick hero, Kevin Schade, from the last home game. No, Mikkel Damsgaard, whose wonderful form of late had made him a key midfield presence until the disappointing defeat on 3 December, in which he had scored the only Brentford goal.
Instead, the injury-prone, Brazilian/Spanish signing Igor Thiago, who arrived from Bayern Munich and Liverpool but was no sooner in a Brentford kit than injured in a pre-season friendly, led the forward line wearing what was Ivan Toney’s number 9 shirt. This was to be Igor’s Bees starting line-up debut just so long as he didn’t get injured in the warm-up.
Having sorted out this new formation, home fans were delighted to see Bryan Mbeumo score a splendid goal after just eight minutes, cutting in from the wing and threading his way through the Newcastle defence and directing his shot out of visiting keeper Nick Pope’s reach.
Three minutes later the Magpies retaliated through Alexander Isak, showing that they were no mugs. Game on, the Bees realised, even though the visitors’ bumpy ride was far from their excellent record of previous seasons.
Another strike, by the in-form sharp-shooter Yoane Wissa, saw this scenario repeated four minutes later, with Joe Murphy finding Harvey Barnes for the winger to send a crackerjack shot into the far corner of Mark Flekken’s net. And so to half-time at 2-2, evens-stevens even if the home crowd had already seen enough to bolster their enthusiasm.
Poor Newcastle, they must have thought a football version of Storm Darragh had arrived in West London. Brentford’s passing moves suddenly became pin-point accurate – even those which usually prompted palpitations among supporters of a nervous disposition. The defence looked rock-solid; Mbeumo became even more tantalising for the opposition as Keiran Trippier and Anthony Gordon – both hot properties – were among those subbed from the Newcastle bench. Begging their pardon, their presence on the field didn’t seem to make the slightest difference.
For the Bees, coach Frank brought on players as and when he thought them good news for a team where some of the players were visibly wilting. Wissa, for example, ran like a greyhound until he didn’t, where upon Ben Mee replaced him for the closing minutes.
And remember those stellar stars missing from the starting line-up? Damsgaard brought fresh legs to relieve Carvalho and Schade in place of Thiago, who had worked industrially until he began to run out of puff.
Nathan Collins played solidly in defence while seeking opportunities to attack, which after 56 minutes led to him racing into the penalty box and side-footing the ball past Pope and neatly inside the far post. And Schade, an infrequent marksman until a fortnight before, added another notch on his belt by having the presence of mind to chip the ball over the advancing Pope to score a fourth in the added time at the end.
Mbeumo almost snatched a fifth when dispossessing Pope, who had strayed a considerable distance from his area, but Dan Burn just won the race to reach the ball just before it crossed the goal line.
As the crowd lingered to join coach Frank and his team happily celebrating a remarkable victory, I asked my mate Charlie for his thoughts.
‘Never happened before,’ said Charlie, ‘but I’m speechless.’
Brentford (3-4-2-1): Flekken; Pinnock, Collins, van den Berg; Lewis-Potter, Nørgaard, Yarmoliuk (Maghoma 95); Mbeumo, Fabio Carvalho (Damsgaard 73); Wissa (Mee 87), Thiago (Schade 73).
Newcastle United (4-3-3): Pope; Hall (Trippier 83), Burn, Schär, Livramento; Joelinton (Tenali 60), Bruno Guimarães; Longstaff (Wilson 73), Barnes (Almirón 73), Isak, Murphy (Gor don 60).
Away is a foreign country for the Bees
Chelsea 2, Brentford 1; 15.12.24
Another defeat, another disappointment for Brentford, but it wasn’t all bad at Stamford Bridge. Chelsea were the better side, certainly, but the finest home record in the Premier League still belongs to the fellow West Londoners. If only they could match similar form on the road.
Brentford held their own, almost, in the first half, but conceded in the last couple of minutes when hirsute wing-back Marc Cucurella left the visiting defence standing to head past Mark Flekken. Later Cucurella was to figure in the action less favourably at the game’s denouement, but for the moment this was Chelsea’s moment of glory.
Thomas Frank’s shuffle of fresh legs from the bench saw the Bees far more combative after the interval, so much so that Chelsea began to look far from comfortable as the game progressed, with Bryan Mbeumo finding his best form. Even Cole Palmer, a class act always, couldn’t find the net, but striker Nicholas Jackson could – firing a low shot into the corner of the net with just ten and an added seven minutes remaining.
Kevin Schade was a special addition from the bench and fed a fine pass for Mbeumo to run clear and score his tenth goal of the season. Whereupon Schade took little notice of some histrionics by Cucurella to accompany the referee’s final whistle, which earned him a second yellow card to ensure he won’t be present in Chelsea’s next outing.
No points collected, the Bees made the short journey home with heads held high and to reflect that there is no place like home.
Brentford (3-5-2): Flekken; Collins, Pinnock, van den Berg; Lewis-Potter (sub Maghoma 86’,), Damsgaard (Janelt 63), Nørgaard, Yarmoliuk (Fábio Carvalho), Roerslev (Ajer 76); Wissa (Schade 76), Mbeumo (Fábio Carvalho 75).
Bill Hagerty is a contributing editor to the Chiswick Calendar website.