Brighton 2-0 Brentford: Maupay scores against old club to finally deliver Seagulls a win

Brighton & Hove Albion v Brentford - Premier League
Getty Images
Marc Mayo26 December 2021

Neal Maupay came back to haunt Brentford with a fine strike in Brighton‘s 2-0 win over the Bees on Boxing Day.

The Seagulls secured their first win in 12 Premier League games with the result in front of a thin Amex Stadium crowd, after Leandro Trossard had opened the scoring in the first-half.

Brentford fought back when two down late on but Robert Sanchez pulled off a pair of brilliant saves and Marc Cucurella acrobatically denied Ethan Pinnock’s header on the goalline.

Those who opted to stay away missed little in the opening stages. Brentford attacker Bryan Mbeumo was sent clear by Thompson's punt forward but his lofted effort over Sanchez lacked conviction and was easily cleared by Dan Burn.

Albion captain Burn later saw a deflected header loop on to the crossbar, albeit with Bees keeper Alvaro Fernandez being fouled by Maupay. Brighton eventually took control of the contest with two sublime goals in the space of nine minutes.

Belgium international Trossard made the initial breakthrough, expertly guiding a deft, first-time finish over the advancing Fernandez following Enock Mwepu's perfectly weighted ball over the top.

Brentford were seeking consecutive Premier League wins for first time and soon had a mountain to climb courtesy of a former hero.

Maupay - who scored 41 goals in 95 games during two seasons in West London - collected the ball from Jakub Moder before unleashing an unstoppable drive beyond Fernandez from just inside the D.

The stunning finish was Maupay's seventh strike of the season and third in as many appearances after he rescued late points at West Ham and Southampton at the start of the month.

Brighton's lengthy winless streak coincided with the injury absence of Danny Welbeck. The former England forward returned from a prolonged hamstring issue for the second half in place of goalscorer Trossard and was forced to defend for much of a second period dominated by the visitors.

Brentford midfielder Shandon Baptiste thought he had halved the deficit on the hour mark but Sanchez somehow managed to repel a deflected effort with his knee.

The Seagulls stopper then got down low to push away Pinnock's nodded effort, before another goal-bound header from the Bees centre-back forced a brave, last-ditch clearance from Cucurella.

Brentford's frustrating evening was perhaps epitomised by Toney being booked for simulation inside the 18-yard box as Brighton comfortably held on for a long-overdue triumph.

Additional reporting by PA Media.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in