Bristol City 1-2 Brentford
SUPER sub Sam Saunders came off the bench to hand Brentford their first back-to-back wins since April.
Following Saturday’s heartening three points against Colchester, Saunders was the man who mattered when he let go from 20 yards five minutes after coming on for Kadeem Harris late in the second half to catch a defender’s boot and wrong-foot the keeper.
It had been coming after Bees survived an early onslaught, but against a team that have look to up the last time they won – it was March 9, 20 games ago, Brentford made heavy weather of it.
However, Saunders’ night was made when his corner was met by Clayton Donaldson at the back post on 85 minutes to herald an almighty stampede to the exits by home fans.
They were stopped dead in their tracks, when another sub Marlon Harewood pulled one back in the second minute of added-on time.
But even there was another nervy few seconds more to endure, Bees held on.
Those in Bristol red were buoyant early on when their side nearly took the lead as Nicky Shorey’s cross saw Bobby Reid side-foot over from the edge of the box when he should have done better.
The early miss heralded a City charge for the first 20 minutes that saw Bees living by their wits.
But having weathered the storm Alan McCormack was a coat of varnish from putting the away team in front.
The right back steamed forward to let fly a dipping shot from 20 yards that had Bristol hearts in their mouths.
They had barely got their breath before Harris’s mazy run full of step-overs was delivered into the centre for Will Grigg to flash a header wide.
Into the second half, George Saville supplied sub Marcello Trotta who couldn’t wriggle free in the box, but the pressure was unfortunately relieved when Jake Bidwell fired woefully wide.
Uwe Rosler had his head in his hands when McCormack’s arrowed centre saw Adam Forshaw glance wide a header and squander the best chance of the game so far.
But the manager had both hands in the air saluting 500-odd travelling Bees and a fine win on the final whistle.
Brentford, 4-3-3: Richard Lee; McCormack, Dean, Craig, Bidwell; Forshaw, Douglas, Saville; Donaldson, Grigg (Trotta 54), Harris (Saunders 74); subs not used: O'Brien, Logan, Taylor, Diagouraga, El Alagui
