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Brentford pile misery on Wigan with comprehensive win as Said Benrahma scores hat-trick

Brentford's Said Benrahma (centre) celebrates scoring his side's second goal of the game with team-mates during the Sky Bet Championship match at Griffin Park, London. PA Photo. Issue date: Saturday July 4, 2020. - PA
Brentford's Said Benrahma (centre) celebrates scoring his side's second goal of the game with team-mates during the Sky Bet Championship match at Griffin Park, London. PA Photo. Issue date: Saturday July 4, 2020. - PA

Brentford 3 Wigan Athletic 0

In the end it went to position rather than form: promotion chasing Brentford dispatched relegation haunted Wigan Athletic in straight-forward fashion. It should have been the battle of the Championship’s most upwardly mobile, between teams who had taken maximum points from Project Restart.

Alas poor Wigan. Any joy they felt after Tuesday’s demolition of Stoke City and taking 19 points from the last 21, evaporated on Wednesday morning when the club went into the murkiest of administrations. Wigan sloped into London for manager’s Paul Cook’s 150th game with their players unpaid, the players’ transport paid for by fans and a disastrous 15-point deduction looming. After the inevitable capitulation, Cook refused to speak to the media afterwards, but he did tell the club’s website: “As you can imagine it was a tough day for us. I can only guarantee we will not lie down and fade away. We will fight until we can’t and there’ no mathematical chance of staying up. At the moment there is a realistic chance we could. This was a bad day and a bad performance.”

Yapping at the heels of Leeds United and West Bromwich Albion, Brentford were at their most elegantly destructive, while keeping a club record fifth consecutive clean sheet and as Wigan looked shellshocked, they were in no mood for clemency. After 19 minutes, Ollie Watkins’s corner wasn’t properly cleared, Emiliano Marcondes headed on and a laxly chaperoned Said Benrahma swivelled to guide his 12th goal of the season beyond David Marshall.

Seemingly resigned to the worst, Wigan struggled to slip Brentford’s handcuffs and shortly after half-time, they were two down. There seemed little in the way of peril when Benrahma gathered the ball out by the left touchline, but Wigan were not about to enjoy a slice of luck. He gambolled around Nathan Byrne and let fly. Whether it was a cross or shot only he truly knows, but it sailed over Marshall and into the top corner. “He claimed it was a shot,” chuckled Brentford head coach Thomas Frank, “but it was a cross.”

Benrahma scored a hat-trick at Hull in February and when Josh Dasilva linked with Christian Norgaard to find him, the Algerian would score a hat trick in London in July too. The ball seemed to be under his feet, but he steadied himself and guided the ball past Marshall.

Shortly before the end, substitute Joe Garner was dismissed for a flying lunge at Jan Zamburek, but all hope had long been abandoned.

Match details

Brentford: (4-3-3): Raya 7; Henry 6, Pinnock 7, Jansson 6, Dalsgaard 6; Norgaard 6 (Zamburek, 73, 6 )  Baptiste 7 (Dasilva, 42), Marcondes 7 (Jensen, 64, 6); Mbeumo 6 (Valencia, 64, 6 ), Benrahma 8 (Fosu, 72, 6), Watkins 8

Subs: Daniels (gk), Jeanvier, Roerslev, Dervisoglu

Wigan Athletic: (4-2-2-2): Marshall 6; Byrne 5 (Mlarker, 73, 5), Robinson, 5, Balogun 5 (Massey, 6mins, 6) , Kipre 6; Morsy 6, Williams 6; Naismith 6, Dowell 6 (Evans 73, 5); Lowe 6 (Fox, 60, 5), Moore 6 (Garner, 60, 4 )

Subs: Jones (gk), Pearce, Macleod, Gelhardt

Booked: Robinson

Sent off: Garner

Referee: Matthew Donohue (Manchester)