Key events
Match report
I’ll leave you with Jacob Steinberg’s report on a brutal night for West Ham. Thanks for joining me. Bye!
Nuno continues: “I believe our fans are concerned, and that feeling passes to the players. We had situations that players of this quality shouldn’t have. We are the ones who have to turn things around. It’s up to us.”
“This job is the most important thing in my life,” he adds. “Will we play differently at Leeds? We must.”
Nuno Espírito Santo: “Today was a disappointing performance, it was not good enough. We had a good spell in the first 15-20 minutes but then we got ourselves in trouble. A lot of set-pieces we couldn’t manage … we need to win individual duels if we want to win the match.”
“I tried to solve the fragility we were having, to try and stay in the game,” he says of his half-time triple change. “We start trying to solve this tomorrow. Hard work, commitment, conscious effort are needed.”
Keith Andrews: “Very impressive performance. I’ve been feeling good about our training, we approached it in a very positive manner. Lots of courage, lots of personality. You want the second goal, I felt we deserved it … but we managed the game very well.
“It’s constant learning for me and the team how we manage those situations. It’s quite a young group, and we’re still learning together. Thiago arrived at a similar time to me, he got injured so early on … I always make an effort with injured players because I know how that feels. I’ve got a lot of belief in him.”
As for West Ham, they’re straight back to it on Friday night against Leeds at Elland Road. Oof!
An interesting run of games coming up for Brentford, starting at home to Liverpool. After a League Cup trip to Grimsby, then it’s Palace (A), Newcastle (H), Brighton (A) and Burnley (H).
While we wait for either manager to appear, here’s a great story from Sweden. Mjällby, a team from a town whose population could fit into the empty seats tonight, have won the title!
Igor Thiago gives his thoughts: “I missed the first chance and thought ‘I need to score, I need to score’. I work hard to score goals and play well with these guys.” He’s awarded player of the match, and looks delighted.
And Mikel Damsgaard: “It could have been more, we created a lot of chances and had a lot of set pieces, but we’re happy to get the three points. We’re connecting better and getting to know each other as players.”
Full time: West Ham 0-2 Brentford
The fans who have bothered to stay can barely be bothered to boo as West Ham suffer a fourth straight home defeat. Brentford thoroughly deserved to win and the only real positive for the hosts is that it took until the 94th minute to wrap things up. Nuno has serious work to do; his team look a complete mess.
GOAL! West Ham 0-2 Brentford (Jensen 94′)
And there’s the knockout blow, with Lewis-Potter chasing down Kelleher’s clearance and picking out Jensen, who takes a touch near the penalty spot and smashes the ball into the net. Game over, finally.
92 mins: Bowen’s cross deflects dangerously across goal, with Kayode hacking it clear. West Ham have a throw in, which is cleared, and then Wan Bissaka sends a pass straight out of play.
91 mins: Diouf’s cross rebounds out to Paqueta, whose attempted volley may have cleared the stadium roof.
90 mins: Paqueta swings the ball in, but Thiago gets his head to it first. There’ll be four minutes of stoppage time for West Ham to rescue a miserable night.
89 mins: Summerville skips past Henderson, who brings him down and will be booked. That’s the end of his night, with Mathias Jensen replacing him to defend this free kick …
88 mins: Mavropanos won’t be coming back – he’s on the medical cart – so West Ham will end this game with 10 men.
87 mins: Bowen gets back to disrupt a Brentford attack with time ticking down. The hosts have Mavropanos still off the field while Summerville is moving gingerly.
85 mins: Summerville also goes down, but the referee waves play on. With West Ham briefly down to nine, Lewis-Potter hares upfield and sends a terrific effort just beyond the top corner.
84 mins: After a soul-sappingly scrappy spell of play, Mavropanos goes down holding his leg. In pain but also in the way, he has to shuffle himself off the field.
82 mins: Plenty of home fans heading for the exits, which seems silly at 1-0 down. Although I haven’t had to sit through this. I mean, I have, but at least I’m indoors.
80 mins: With 10 minutes to go, this feels like a mismatched Cup game. Brentford are holding on with relative comfort, West Ham lacking the basic cohesion to even threaten an equaliser.
78 mins: Another chance for Brentford, Yarmolyuk’s pass a knife through that warm, buttery West Ham defence, and Thiago’s shot from a narrow angle is parried away by Areola.
76 mins: Bowen concedes a free kick after stepping on Ajer’s boot. West Ham just can’t get any kind of rhythm going.
75 mins: Janelt is on for the lively Damsgaard, with Lewis-Potter replacing Ouattara.
74 mins: Summerville’s runs through the middle still look like West Ham’s best option. He makes ground here again but opts to play it to Marshall, who is crowded out. Diouf was in space to his left; West Ham haven’t really used their wing backs in this second half.
72 mins: With West Ham’s bench emptied, Keith Andrews is about to make his first changes. Janelt and Lewis-Potter are coming on.
71 mins: Summerville finds Bowen in a pocket of space, but his shot flies high and wide, possibly not helped by a bobble.
70 mins: Summerville sends in a better delivery that grazes Soucek’s forehead before Kelleher collects. A final change for West Ham – it’s Guido Rodriguez coming on for Soucek. Not sure about that one.
68 mins: Henderson sends in a free kick which causes more problems, bobbling about before being cleared. He’s had a very good game, helping Brentford to dominate the midfield.
67 mins: Summerville brings down Yarmolyuk and is booked. He throws his arms out in frustration – careful now.
65 mins: The trouble for West Ham is that their midfield is essentially just Tomas Soucek now. Brentford have plenty of space on the break, and Thiago is just offside as he runs on to a Damsgaard through ball.
64 mins: Paqueta crosses with three claret shirts in the box, but his delivery is easily claimed by Kelleher.
63 mins: Just before that, Nuno made a fourth change – throwing on young striker Callum Marshall in place of Irving, who has worked hard but struggled to influence the game.
62 mins: Brentford hit the bar again! A lovely clipped ball from Kayode is read by Schade, who sends his header crashing off the underside of the bar. How are West Ham still in this game?
60 mins: Damsgaard swings in a dangerous cross that’s half-cleared, then links up with Ajer to win a corner. Van den Berg meets it but his header goes wide. The visitors have had 18 shots on goal so far.
58 mins: Diouf is offering a bit of width down the left, but he’s too quick for Bowen here, whose attempted pass trickles out of play.
57 mins: Damsgaard shields the ball from Wan-Bissaka and wins a free kick – another chance to sling it in the mixer for Brentford.
56 mins: Kayode’s long throw rebounds to Areola, who looks for a quick out ball but doesn’t have an option.
55 mins: Brentford break again, Damsgaard just unable to pick out Ouattara with a low cross. From the corner Areola is caught wandering again, but the hosts survive.
54 mins: Summerville carries the ball well again before Soucek’s shot is deflected into the air, and down into Kelleher’s arms.