Brentford 3 (MacDonald 71, pen, 84, Grabban 82) Huddersfield Town 0
Brentford cruised to a surprisingly comfortable victory over play-off hopefuls Huddersfield Town at Griffin Park on Saturday.
A match bathed in spring sunshine sprung to life midway through the second half, when Charlie MacDonald put the Bees ahead from the penalty spot.
After notching two more, Brentford even had the luxury of seeing Huddersfield miss a penalty in added-on time.
Manager Andy Scott was delighted with the performance: “We played very well in the first half and I think the whole 90 minutes was the most complete since I have been in charge.
"After the run of games we have had, that is some effort.”
Before kick-off, Scott suffered an injury blow, with Pim Balkestein unavailable, while he also opted to drop David Hunt to a bench that featured only four outfield players due to injuries elsewhere in the squad.
Danny Foster returned at right-back, while Carl Cort partnered MacDonald up front.
Brentford looked the more lively during the opening exchanges as they forced two corners.
Midway through the first half, a poor clearance from Town keeper Alex Smithies allowed Lewis Grabban to knock in a fierce low shot that the keeper did well to turn behind for a corner.
After half-an-hour, a lovely piece of skill in midfield from Cort saw him fool the defender as he dragged the ball back before setting up Sam Wood down the left.
He found Myles Weston, whose shot across the face of goal was just wide.
The Terriers lacked bite as their midfield struggled to get hold of the ball, although before half-time James Berrett’s low cross to the near post could have caused danger, but was cleared by the Bees defence.
Huddersfield looked livelier after the half-time break, but failed to seriously trouble Wojciech Szczesny in Brentford’s goal.
The Bees eventually made the breakthrough after 70 minutes, when they were awarded a penalty after the ball struck a hand inside Huddersfield’s box.
MacDonald slotted the ball home into the bottom left hand corner.
Brentford sealed victory 10 minutes later, when Cort released Grabban down the right and the loanee hit a powerful shot across the goal into the left-hand corner.
Just two minutes later, MacDonald doubled his tally for the day, when he turned sharply in the box at the near post and hit his second from close range.
Huddersfield had looked flat all day and their misery was compounded in added-on time when Szczesny was penalised for his challenge on Gary Roberts, but the midfielder then blazed his penalty high over the bar.
Brentford: Szczesny; Foster, Osborne, Legge, Wood; Grabban (sub Saunders 87), Bean, Diagouraga, Weston; Cort, MacDonald
Subs (not used): Price, Hunt, Strevens, Blake
Attendance: 5,209
Goals: (MacDonald 71 [pen], 84, Grabban 82)
Man of the match: Carl Cort
Match rating: 4/6
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