Bournemouth’s Nigerian-born trio of Arnaut Danjuma, Dominic Solanke and Philip Anyanwu Billing all failed to score on Saturday afternoon, and The Cherries fell at home against Brentford Town in the English Championship.
With a sudden lack of goals hitting all three Nigerian-born lads uncharacteristically, Bryan Mbeumo ended Bournemouth’s seven-match winning run as Brentford secured a Championship play-off spot with a 1-0 victory at the Vitality Stadium.
With two of the Championship’s highest-scoring teams facing off, plus recent scoring form from Solanke, Billing and Danjuma, all pundits thought the game would be a classic, but it was he visitors who got the opening goal on 15 minutes.
Brentford began on the front foot but were caught out several times in the opening minutes from their own high line. Junior Stanislas should have punished them on the shoulder of the last man, but, when well-placed, slipped and blasted wide.
Brentford thoroughly deserved their win on the south coast despite playing the final 40 minutes with 10 men, after Pontus Jansson was sent off for two bookings, and took the lead 13 minutes from time when super-sub Mbeumo fired home the rebound from Ivan Toney’s effort.
Megasportsaena.com reports that The Bees could have led long before Mbeumo’s winner, but Sergi Canos was denied a first-half opener by Steve Cook’s goal-line block and Toney fired straight at Asmir Begovic when played clean through.
However, even with a man down, Brentford remained in the ascendency as Bournemouth’s free-scoring play of recent weeks deserted them, and they are now guaranteed a second consecutive play-off campaign thanks to their victory.
An end-to-end game changed course in an instant five minutes after the break, when Jansson was shown his marching orders for bringing Arnaut Danjuma crashing to the ground from Begovic’s clearance but, if anything, it added to Brentford’s resolve.
While Bournemouth struggled to create, even with the addition of David Brooks, Brentford’s dual strike-force continued to look dangerous, and a poor touch from Toney in the hosts’ box denied him a chance of an opener after Jack Wilshere had been robbed in midfield.
With 13 minutes left he twice tried his luck again, and this time found the breakthrough. Toney picked up the rebound from his own blocked effort before trying again from a tight angle, leaving Begovic only able to palm the ball into the path of Mbeumo, who fired home from close-range.
Bournemouth huffed and puffed in the final minutes as they looked to at least keep their unbeaten run alive, but could not find a way through and were leapfrogged into third position by their visitors, who still have a game in hand.
