Tony Mowbray’s three-year anniversary at Rovers saw his side throw away a two-goal lead for the second successive season away at Brentford. The final game at Griffin Park between the two sides saw a ‘tale of two penalties’ occur in-front of the attending Sky Sports cameras, as honours ended even at 2-2.
Rovers lined-up in west London with a side that was unchanged from last weekend’s 2-0 victory against Charlton Athletic. There was an alteration to the bench however, as Sam Gallagher returned at the expense of Harry Chapman who dropped out of the 18. There were some milestones among the travelling camp as Bradley Johnson was set to make his 500th career appearance, whilst Dominic Samuel was up for his 50th game in Blue and White.
As the league’s top two form teams geared up for the early 12:30pm kick-off, it was the home side who got the game underway as they hoped to extend their automatic promotion aspirations, as they took the kick-off knowing that a win would put them within one point of coveted top two spots.
Bryan Mbeumo started the brightest of the Bees’ front three as he was slipped in behind Rovers’ defence after just four minutes, but luckily for the travelling support behind Walton’s goal, they saw the on-loan shot-stopper gather the ball harmlessly.
The sixth minute saw Brentford earn a succession of corners which, despite putting Rovers under immense pressure, saw the visiting side deal with the threat with ease.
Pandemonium soon broke out in the away end as Rovers took a surprising lead on the counter-attack, courtesy of the man of the hour, Adam Armstrong, who moved ahead of Bradley Dack in Rovers’ goalscoring ranks for the season. A long, direct ball forward by Christian Walton – who would claim the assist for the goal – landed perfectly for Armstrong whose first touch to bring it down behind Ethan Pinnock was magnificent. The ‘Angel of the North’ was able to keep his composure whilst noticing that David Raya was closing down the angle. Although Raya would have thought that he had his former-teammates number, Armstrong showed that he was one step ahead as he kept his nerve in order to dink the ball over Raya to give Rovers the lead at 1-0 and notch his 10th league goal of the season, on the 11th minute of the game.
Three minutes later, Armstrong nearly made it two as he tried his luck from around 25-yards out after possession was given away by Brentford, however the in-form man’s effort skewed wide of the left-hand post.
Saïd Benrahma was able to get into the action on the 26th minute as he tried to curl in an effort into the bottom-right corner. Luckily for Rovers, Walton was alert enough to make, what turned out to be, a simple save straight down his throat.
Adam Armstrong and Dominic Samuel nearly combined to double Rovers’ lead on the 29th minute, despite a good passage of play however, the former’s cross to the latter was overhit, as Brentford were awarded a goal-kick.
Just after the half-hour mark, Benrahma again showed the quality that he possessed as he again tried to beat Walton. A ball across the Rovers box rolled across his path before he tried his luck with an effort that deflected towards goal. Walton, however, did brilliantly to read the altered flight path of the ball before getting across and denying the effort down to his left.
Benrahma’s frustrations heightened on the 37th minute as he again saw one of his efforts denied by a valiant Rovers defence. This time it was Ryan Nyambe who denied the Algerian as he threw himself in the way of the ball heroically, to deny what was a certain equaliser.
Rovers pushed for a second on the 42nd minute as Bradley Johnson tried to wind-up one of his patented efforts, however his radar was off this time, as his effort dragged wide of the target.
The final moments of the first-half – which saw referee Tim Robinson add two extra minutes – saw Rovers have the final say of the period.
The penultimate chance of the half saw Armstrong win a free-kick on the edge of the Brentford box, before brushing himself down and stepping up to take it. The forward confidently stood over the ball before seeing his effort denied by Raya.
The final chance of the half fell to Dominic Samuel who tried his luck on the turn, however his subsequent slip dictated the trajectory of the ball wide of the target. Samuel’s effort was deemed to be the final one of the half as Tim Robinson soon called for the break after Raya’s goal-kick.
Whilst the Sky Sports pundits began their analysis of the first-half in their studio, the dressing rooms would have had contrasting approaches towards the game.
Brentford boss, Thomas Frank would have been furious with the way his side had conceded their goal, particularly due to the dominance of the ball they had, having ended the first period with 65% possession of the ball and double Rovers’ shots on target at four, to the away side’s two. The Dane’s fury regarding the goal would have been compounded by the fact they’d only conceded 13 home league goals this season, prior to this fixture.
Contrastingly, Tony Mowbray would have been delighted with how his side had applied themselves. The gaffer would have been pleased with both the effort and application that his side had displayed, as well as the valiant defensive display which continued their fine form of having kept 11 clean sheets this season.
Rovers soon got the game back underway for the second-half, but not before some maintenance could be applied to the goal Rovers would be attacking. Prior to the second period it was noticed that the goal in-front of the 1,454 Rovers supporters had a hole in it, which, rather hilariously required a cable tie to hold it together.
It took eight minutes for the action to pick back up where the first-half left off, as Rovers were awarded a chance to double their lead from the spot, after Tim Robinson judged that David Raya had fouled John Buckley. The Spaniard did well to originally deny Armstrong with a fantastic save, however the former Rover tried to unnecessarily clean up ahead of his defenders and he ended up grabbing John Buckley, instead of the ball, which gave the youngster leeway to go down and appeal for the spot-kick. Luckily for Rovers, the official agreed as Armstrong was given the chance to notch his eighth goal in his last 14 games. The 23-year old made no mistake from the spot as he slotted home into the bottom-right corner, sending Raya the wrong way, to grab his second of the game – and his 12th of the season in all competitions – to make it 2-0.
Just prior to the restart, Brentford made their first change of the game as Mads Roerslev came on to replace Julian Jeanvier. Minutes after the first change, their second came as Shandon Baptiste came on for Emiliano Marcondes.
The 62nd minute saw the pressure cranked up to full, from a Rovers perspective, as a wondergoal from Ollie Watkins saw Brentford craft a route back into the game. Henrik Dalsgaard chipped the ball forward into Watkins’ path. The division’s second best scorer did brilliantly to bring the ball down on his chest before hitting a volley that caught Walton out at his near-post before nestling into the top corner to reduce the arrears to 2-1 with his first goal from outside the box, this season.
Rovers responded with their first change of the game as Sam Gallagher returned to the field in-place of John Buckley.
The 66th minute nearly saw the score levelled as Josh Dasilva saw his low corner land at the feet of Pinnock, who blazed the effort from close-range, over the bar.
2-2 soon became a reality after Saïd Benrahma finally got the better of Walton, courtesy of the game’s second penalty, which was awarded after the referee deemed that Johnson had brought Roerslev down in the area. After the scene was set, Benrahma made no mistake from the spot as he dispatched the penalty into the bottom-right corner to level the game. With the game back level, the Rovers fans would have been hoping that they wouldn’t see a repeat of last season’s 5-2 defeat.
The 72nd minute saw Stewart Downing test David Raya, but his free-kick, which got up and over the ball, was well stopped by the Spaniard.
Rovers’ second substitution of the game, which came shortly after Raya’s save, saw Elliott Bennett introduced as Dominic Samuel made way, as his 50th Rovers appearance was cut short.
With 15 minutes of the game left, Rovers were given an opportunity on a silver platter after Dalsgaard under-hit his pass back to Raya. Armstrong was alert enough to capitalise on the mistake and open up his body to try and notch his hat-trick, however his former teammate again stood in his way, as the scores remained level.
The 79th saw Rovers have a free-kick that Downing again stood over. The 35-year old – who scored his first senior goal at Griffin Park, in Middlesbrough’s 4-1 win over the Bees in October 2002 – lofted in a cross that saw Darragh Lenihan attack it, however the Rovers skipper failed to keep the effort on target.
A minute later, Bryan Mbeumo was booked for a foul inside his own half.
Brentford’s final change came on the 84th minute as they looked to push on for a winner. Striker Halil Dervişoğlu was thrown on in-place of full-back Rico Henry, which saw a shift in Brentford’s system.
Rovers’ final chance of the game saw Sam Gallagher rise highest in the area to meet a Downing cross, yet the returning forward couldn’t keep his header down as the ball ballooned over for a goal-kick.
The final chance of the game saw Walton produce a world-class save in the dying embers of normal time as Benrahma closed down on goal. The Algerian played a one-two with Watkins before tiptoeing past Lenihan and releasing a low effort that Walton managed to poke away with his legs. The drama didn’t end there, however, as Rovers failed to clear as Dervişoğlu’s follow-up was held by the shot-stopper, who more than proved his worth to the side in this game.
Although four minutes of added time were allocated, with Rovers in the ascendency due to having multiple late set-pieces, they were unable to make their late pressure pay a pulsating game was soon ended level at 2-2.
The match, which was an absolute thriller for the neutral, showed the positives and negatives of Rovers’ season, wrapped up inside 90 minutes. The positives shone through Rovers’ play when in possession of the ball and despite ending the game with 37% possession, Rovers showed their quality on the ball throughout the game as they unsettled Brentford for a majority of the tie, specifically at the start of the second-half. Additionally, Rovers’ attacking play was advertised for the world to see, yet it was their defensive frailties that cost them at Griffin Park once again. Whilst it can be argued that the referee ‘evened up the game’ with the awarding of a soft penalty for Brentford, the Bees’ comeback cannot be knocked as they whipped up their crowd in order to capitalise on Rovers’ ‘negatives’ and their frailties at the back. Although the Blues have been good defensively in recent weeks, the ghost of last season was always going to be looming in the minds of players and supporters alike. Of course, everybody is disappointed that the side failed to hold onto their two-goal advantage, yet against a team as strong as Brentford, a point might go a long way, given the topsy-turvy nature of the Championship.
With this game occurring first in this week’s fixture list, the league table should be taken with a pinch of salt until 5:30pm. Despite that, Rovers still find themselves two points away from the playoffs, in 8th with 51 points and a positive 10 goal-difference with only 12 games remaining.
Looking ahead to the upcoming games, Rovers now have two back-to-back home games to look forward to. The first of which comes in just over four days time, as the Blues play hosts to struggling Stoke City on Wednesday 26th February at 7:45pm. Following that affair, Swansea City make the long trip over from south Wales on Saturday 29th February to kick-off proceedings at 3pm. After the Swans have departed Ewood, Rovers have an eight-day pause before returning to action at Pride Park against Derby County on Sunday 8th March at 3pm – with the game having been rescheduled to Sunday due to Derby’s FA Cup game against Manchester United falling in midweek.
