Brentford 2 - Dagenham 1

Forster sets up last minute goal

Brentford just about deserved their two-one win over east London neighbours Dagenham & Redbridge.

The Bees started brightly with Wood playing on the left constantly pushing forward and looking dangerous. After 10 minutes it was Sam that put a powerful cross into the box which Mac selflessly played across into Simpson's path for a fairly routine strike to make it 1-0.

Unfortunately Wood played little more of the game. He slid for the ball at the touchline, took out a Dagenham player along the way and crashed into the hoardings. Sam was stretchered off and received a yellow card. He was replaced by Myles Weston.

Brentford continued to dominate the game and the chances but the Daggers drew level on 34 minutes with a sweeping cross from their left to the right and a slightly scuffed but first time ball into the six yard box saw a composed finish from Vindelot to make it 1-1.

Later Dave just scraped the bar with a powerful shot seconds after some pinball in the Daggers goalmouth and a goal line clearance.

The second half was more even and started fairly slowly. Myles eased himself into the game and managed two very dangerous crosses in quick succession which livened things up a bit. The game was fairly open and end to end by now.

Simpson was replaced by Spillane who seemed quite direct pushing forward and was actually quite creative with his passing, putting the opposition on the back foot by not always making the obvious pass. It was one of these moves that saw a nice interchange with Alexander and Mac, which Mac screwed wide. A real chance.

With just four minutes to go Weston was replaced by Forster with immediate effect. He got the ball on the left, beat his man, lost the ball, won the ball, lost it again, won it again then pulled off a terrific turn to lose his marker and put a sweet ball in for Alexander to head home for the winner. I liked the way Kev was looking at the crowd and pointing at Forster, basically saying 'he's the man'.

Brentford played out the rest of the game with just one more goal attempt screwed wide from the Daggers.

There was no sign of Saunders on the bench so maybe his hamstring is still playing him up.

Lee played well and had to pull off one good save. The back four were fairly solid. Kev, as usual, was the pick of the centre midfield doing his usual thing. The front two were everywhere with Mac particularly effective even against a very good [massive!] no. 5 with more arms than an octopus.

Three points, ninth in the table and 2 points off a play off position.

Brentford: Lee; Wright, Legge, Osborne, Woodman; Simpson (sub Spillane 69 mins), O'Connor, Diagouraga, Wood (sub Weston 15 mins (sub Forster 87 mins)); Alexander, MacDonald

Subs (not used): Hamer, McCracken, Balkestein, Blake, Forster

With thanks to beesotted for their match report

January 4, 2011