Much to admire as Irons sting the Bees

Irons 2 Brentford 1

By Hugh Southon

The Irons continued their pre-season winning ways with an often impressive victory over beaten Championship play off finalists Brentford.

I can’t often remember being disappointed to see a friendly end but that was the case today as the lads often played the sort of football to give us much hope ahead of the season.

The one sour moment came when Michail Antonio went down with a hip injury after falling awkwardly and we will attempt to find out the score with him later today.

On the face of it his injury didn’t look too bad and it may well have been a precautionary measure to take him off but it demonstrated the concerns some of us have given his injury track record and seemingly a back up striker not high on David Moyes’ priority agenda.

Andriy Yarmelonko gave us the lead after four minutes having been played in well by Pablo Fornals and after Brentford’s Forrs equalised late on in the first half Tomas Soucek was on hand to convert Antonio’s brilliantly executed assist in the second half.

Soucek was a hugely imposing player at the heart of midfield and his second goal in two friendlies showed what a massive asset he will be this season.

Yarmolenko is responding well to the challenge Jarrod Bowen’s arrival is putting him under and both Anderson and Lanzini appear to be putting pressure on each other for the creative role – Lanzini may be in front at this stage.

The Hammers were in control and held possession well for long periods and both looked far more effective and up for it when the arrived for the second half.

At the back Fabian Balbuena was given an extended run out and did nothing to harm any opinion Moyes may have formed about him.

At this stage of the pre-season we can all feel pretty happy about where we are and it’s particularly good to see us moving the ball well, creating chances but the coaching team may still need to do a little work at the back.