Brentford vs Sheffield Wednesday. Sky Bet Championship.
Griffin ParkAttendance10,853.
Saturday 30 December 2017 18:30, UK
Brentford made it nine points from nine over the Christmas period with a comfortable win over managerless Sheffield Wednesday.
Goals from Lasse Vibe and Florian Jozefzoon earned the hosts a 2-0 win. Danish striker Vibe gave the Bees the lead after 20 minutes with his sixth goal in five games when he finished off a flowing four-man move down the right. He raced on to a Nico Yennaris through-ball to fire past Wednesday keeper Joe Wildsmith.
And Jozefzoon made sure of the points with a cool strike seven minutes from time, picking his spot from 12 yards after Neal Maupay won the ball on halfway and unselfishly played him in.
Brentford's victory was just reward for some impressive one-touch football and only Wednesday keeper Joe Wildsmith kept the scoreline down. The young keeper pulled off a string of last-ditch saves to restrict the Bees to just the one goal at the break.
Wednesday threatened after 12 minutes when Atdhe Nuhiu headed Morgan Fox's left-wing cross just wide, but from then on the first half was all Brentford.
Five minutes after taking the lead through Vibe, Romaine Sawyers carved open the Wednesday defence with a superb disguised through-ball, but Jozefzoon's first-time angled drive was well saved by Wildsmith. The keeper was called into action again less than 10 minutes later, this time diving full stretch to brilliantly save a Ryan Woods effort from 12 yards.
Moments later he then raced off his line to get a decisive touch to Vibe's instinctive first-time shot after the visitors' defence was again left flat-footed by a Sergi Canos pass.
Sam Hutchinson appeared lucky to escape with a yellow card almost on the stroke of half-time following an off-the-ball incident that floored Jozefzoon and incensed the Bees players.
Brentford kept their foot on the gas after the break, Jozefzoon ghosting past four challenges from the right to tee up Vibe, whose shot was deflected inches over. Yoann Barbet went close from the ensuing corner, but his volley from the tightest of angles back across goal drifted just wide.
Canos almost extended the lead on the hour mark, but his speculative volley from the edge of the area fizzed just over.
Wednesday rallied late on and Adam Reach saw a rare effort blocked by Barbet before Lucas Joao should have done better when he glanced Jacob Butterfield's left-wing cross agonisingly over. But Jozefzoon's late strike gave Brentford the scoreline their dominance deserved.
Dean Smith: "For a few years we have had a way of playing, a style of football and method to our recruitment and that is the foundation. I don't care whether I get the credit because I want my team to get the credit, but you only get credit when you win things and we haven't won anything yet.
"We didn't find our fluidity for the first 20 minutes but once we got the goal we moved up a level. I told the boys I wanted to see how they reacted without the ball today and every time we lost it we won it back quickly and high up the pitch. It was as complete a performance as we have put in all season, with the added bonus of a clean sheet."
Caretaker boss Lee Bullen: "We came into the Brentford game with confidence but we could not give get the same movement we did against Forest, but the best thing is that we have the opportunity to right the wrongs of the previous game and it will be another hard-fought battle with Burton because you know what you get from Nigel Clough's teams."
