Wolves collapsed defensively by conceding four times in a chaotic six-goal first half as Brentford increased the pressure on visiting manager Gary O’Neil with a ridiculous 5-3 victory.
Wolves remain bottom of the Premier League and are winless along with Southampton, Crystal Palace and Ipswich. Some visiting supporters turned on O’Neil at full-time and during the second half by booing and chanting “you don’t know what you’re doing” at one of his substitutions while also singing “We want Fosun out” at the club’s owners.
O’Neil said: “I didn’t hear all of the reactions so it’s difficult for me to comment on all of them. The reaction at the end, I fully understand. I’m absolutely devastated with the way the team performed today.”
Their torrid away day began instantly. Brentford were denied from scoring in the opening 60 seconds for a fourth consecutive time but instead, they netted in the second minute when Nathan Collins headed home.
Wolves, though, responded through Matheus Cunha’s equaliser in only the fourth minute yet fell behind again when Bryan Mbeumo rolled in a nerveless penalty after VAR had spotted Collins being hauled over by Mario Lemina at a corner.
Wolverhampton Wanderers’ Matheus Cunha celebrates scoring a goal against Brentford
However, the visitors quickly equalised once more as Jorgen Strand Larsen stabbed in from Rayan Ait-Nouri’s low cross.
Brentford responded immediately. Wolves comically gave the ball away in their box and Christian Norgaard ruthlessly found the bottom corner for a third Brentford lead.
The hosts wouldn’t give it up again. Wolves allowed Ethan Pinnock to be completely unmarked from a corner to head home in first-half injury-time to make the score 4-2.
Brentford’s Ethan Pinnock celebrates scoring their side’s fourth goal against Wolves
Wolves were desperately poor at the back in the opening period although carried plenty of threat in attack which disappeared in the second half. They had goalkeeper Sam Johnstone to thank for making a string of saves which kept the score from ending in double figures.
Brentford substitute Fabio Carvalho tapped in a late fifth and, typically, Wolves responded through Ait-Nouri’s solo run and finish during injury-time.
O’Neil: Our worst performance – the team lost understanding
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Wolves manager Gary O’Neil reflects on his team’s 5-3 loss to Brentford as his team sit bottom of the Premier League table after seven games.
Wolves manager Gary O’Neil said:
“There was no structure, complete loss of control as to what the team were meant to do and where the team were meant to be. The worst performance I’ve seen from the group since I’ve been here.
“Just far too open, no real understanding and gave ourselves no opportunity in the game at all because of the level of defensive shape and structure. Even when we had the ball, we were all over the place, so then transitions were a big problem to us.
“I look squarely at myself this afternoon around ‘can we give this group something that they can follow better than they did today?’ Because obviously the proof there today is that they weren’t able to carry out what we needed to. There needs to be a rethink around how we go about things.
“There were some crazy decisions made in some of the goals. But the fact that the players are making mistakes means there’s a disconnect somewhere in understanding of what’s being asked or where they need to be. The mistakes in the end are my responsibility.”
Frank jokes: We practiced coin toss and lost it!
Brentford manager Thomas Frank:
“We’ve been practicing winning the coin toss all week and we lost that one. That’s why it took 116 seconds [to score]! Jokes aside it’s quite remarkable. In general, we want to get forward as quick as possible, work it down the side and put crosses in the box. They did that fantastic.
“Offensively, wow! Unbelievable. It seems like we created a chance every time we went forward. Our set-pieces were such a threat as well. Defensively, I’m mostly angry about the first goal. We can and need to do better.”
