Bad luck, bad defending and Emery's dodgy line-up push WHU back in drop zone

Brentford 3 West Ham 0

It's a nervous afternoon again listening to the game on Radio 5. Early on Pablo uses his strength well to get beyond the last defender, only he hesitates too long and under pressure allows Kelleher to save his scuffed shot. 

The Bus Stop From Hounslow take the lead after 15 minutes. Bowen allows Lewis-Potter to cut inside and cross. Kayode gets beyond Summerville to hit the post and trying to clear the Greek Bloke hits it in off the bar. 

West Ham respond well, Taty Castellanos takes down Diouf's free kick to fire against the outside of the post. Then from Diouf's free kick Mavropanos rises to power home a great header. Only it's VAR time and Dinos is ruled offside by a shoulder. 

Brentford have a couple of chances as Hermansen rushes out from his area, miscues his header, and Damsgaard shoots wide of an open goal. Then Thiago doesn't connect properly in a one-on-one with Mads. There's time for Castellanos to head Bowen's corner on to the inside of the post and then force Kelleher intro a fine save with a long-range effort. It could easily be 3-3 at half-time.

Unfortunately West Ham make the worst possible start to the second half. Outtara twists past Diouf and Malick goes to ground to concede a cheap penalty. Thiago strokes it home. Diouf has improved a lot defensively recently but that was more like the naive defender of early in the season.

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Soucek has a credible penalty claim turned down. The Irons haven't given up hitting the woodwork as Jimmy Summerville performs a typical twisting dribble and thumps a shot against the bar. Soucek strikes the rebound against the outside of the post.

The third goal arrives as West Ham press forward. Sub Wan-Bissaka ambles across to his man too slowly, Traore hasn't tracked Damsgaard and the Bees man shoots though the legs of Fernandes and into the corner.

So it's 3-0 to Brentford, which hasn't reflected the game. We're relying on the kindness of strangers the next evening as Aston Villa take on Spurs. Only Unai Emery makes seven changes from the side that lost at Notts Forest in the Europa League. Clearly concentrating on Europe his zombie side allow Spurs to quickly take a two-goal lead and win 2-1, pushing West Ham back into the bottom three. 

It's not looking good, but is it all over? I still think we can get something from the Arsenal game and it's possible for it to go all Spursy, while Forest aren't out of it yet (ok they are now thanks to Chelsea). One day we'll hit the post and it will go in. Only a week ago we were celebrating Wilson's late winner against Everton. Nuno needs to keep calm and channel the players' anger at the Brentford defeat into the next match. We probably need to win two out of three matches. Otherwise it's Lincoln away.

Soucek secures point at the bus stop in Hounslow

Brentford 1 West Ham 1

It's a trifle disconcerting to switch on the BBC live match text reports at 3.01 and discover that West Ham are a goal down after 38 seconds. Normally we wait four or five minutes to concede an early goal. As Lisa comments on WhatsApp, perhaps we are trying to beat our personal best. 

The trouble begins when Emerson is beaten for pace by Schade and Areola palms away the resulting cross. Another cross comes in, Todibo heads away, Brentford win the second ball and Mbuemo scores with a brilliant volley.

That's nine goals conceded in two games and one minute. To give the players credit they make a determined effort to get back into the game. Kudus, released by Soucek, fires a shot into Flekken and Antonio drags an effort wide. But only a good challenge by Wan-Bissaka prevents Mbuemo making it two with a header before the break.

Lopetegui isn't scared of using subs and this time his changes at the break work. It's brave to take off Kudus for Soler, while Emerson is hooked with Wan-Bissaka moved to left-back and Mavropanos coming on at right back. The idea seems to be to give the Irons more physicality at the back and by all accounts Dinos has a good game in an unfamiliar position. 

The Hammers equalise after 54 minutes. Paqueta does well to win the ball back from Mbuemo on the left, Soucek and Bowen exchange passes and Jarrod does a lovely back heel to Soucek, who flicks on to Antonio whose effort is half-blocked, the ball falling to Soucek to fire home. Tomas does his twirling celebration and though he might be a Moyes stalwart, Loppy is learning that we look a better team with Tomas in the side.

Brentford have a couple of hopeful appeals for penalties turned down in the final ten minutes and Todibo has a decent game at the back. There's even another five-minute cameo from the unknown footballer, Andy Irving. 

In fact it's West Ham who threaten to win it at the end of eight minutes of added time, as Soler's hooked effort is tipped on to the top of the bar by Flekken. Bizarrely and against precedent the ref doesn't allow any time for the corner kick to be taken, causing an eruption from Lopetegui and the players. 

Still, we're relieved to get an away point at the bus stop in Hounslow after that early goal and this was encouraging in terms of spirit. Unbeaten away, defeated every time at home. Hopefully the visit of Ipswich next week can deliver that much-needed home win.

Defensive errors cost the Irons

Brentford 3 West Ham 2

It's nailed on that Neal Maupay will end his goal drought against West Ham. The defence misses several chances to clear as the Bees swing cross after cross into the box. Soucek can only head the ball back into the danger area and Maupay heads home for his first goal in 14 months. His last goal came against West Ham too. 

The response from the Hammers is good though. Antonio crosses and Kudus performs a brilliant bicycle kick to level the score with a stunning effort. The Hammers go ahead when Benrahma plays in an enticing cross, Kudus pokes it against the post and Bowen scores the rebound, to create a new record of scoring in six away games in a row. 

It should be 3-1 when neat play from Kudus and Bowen sees Jarrod cross into the box and Antonio get in the way of Benrahma to shoot wide when Said had a tap-in. Benrahma looks exasperated. There's a warning before the break as Brentford come back and Mbuemo shoots just wide.

I'm feeling quite optimistic while getting the scores on my mobile at the Mildmay Club in Stoke Newington, where my pub quiz pal Adrian Whittaker is launching his book Be Glad on the Incredible String Band and lots of old folkies have arrived to play songs from the Sixties. The answer to West Ham's defensive malaise is blowing in the wind, however.

After the break Aguerd concedes a needless corner with a heavy touch. The first corner is cleared but Mbuemo then swings in a dangerous cross. Areola doesn't come for it and Mavropanos, trying to head it over the bar, can only head past Areola in Dowie-esque fashion. Fornals and Ings come on but on 69 minutes the Hammers concede from a long throw. Jensen gets in another fine cross and Collins rises above Aguerd and Coufal to head home. 

The best the Hammers can produce in response is an effort over the bar from Fornals. All that's left is to commiserate with Big Joe who was at the Bus Stop in Hounslow. That's five wins out of five for Brentford against us in the Premier League. At least Moyes sounds annoyed and says that as a player he would have been "disgusted" with himself for not dealing better with the goals.  

Yes, West Ham missed Zouma, Paqueta and Alvarez and played in midweek, but they have to do better than this. Moyes' side has conceded 20 goals so far and should have far more points from the number of goals scored. Aguerd, for all his quality, is making too many errors, Mavropanos is still raw, Areola needs to be more assertive and the full-backs need to concentrate on defending. Dramatic improvement is needed.

Capitulation at a Bus Stop in Hounslow

Brentford 2 West Ham 0

This game proved, as my fellow fan Michael the Whovian succinctly put it, that West Ham have two teams - a middling Premiership side and a middling Championship side to make up our squad. With nine changes from the Alkmaar game it was clear Moyes was prioritising Thursday's semi-final and hoping Leicester don't win all three of their remaining matches.

Brentford took the lead when Aguerd played a loose ball out of defence and the unmarked Mbuemo arrived to stroke home. Fabianski should have done better. Despite several warnings of the dangers of long throws the move eventually paid off with Brentford winning the first ball and Wissa heading home the second. 

Ings did have a snap shot well saved by Raya, but against that Fabianski also had to make a couple of brilliant saves. Agent Nigel is among the Brentford fans and singles out Cornet as dire and Downes as out of his depth, with no service to Ings who was chasing shadows, but a few nice touches from Lanzini. 

Even without Toney Brentford could have scored four of five. Though the game might have changed if Ings had not had a goal disallowed for a ludicrous VAR decision. Sub Benrahma's cross comes back off a post and hits Divin Mubama. Lanzini gathers and crosses for Ings to score but VAR rules that Mubama has handballed it. He had his arms out to protect himself from running into the post and the ball seemed to hit his shoulder anyway. Another ridiculous VSR decision.

This was a really poor performance and proof that without Rice we won't be able to rely on a central midfield of Soucek and Downes. Hopefully it will have been worth resting so many players if we get a result in Holland, though the reserves failed to put any pressure on the first team with this performance.

Benrahma seals morale-boosting win at Brentford

Brentford 0 West Ham 1 (FA Cup)

Brentford play a side of mostly squad players for this, though the Irons managed to lose to Blackburn's reserves in the Carabao Cup, so it's still a difficult game against one of WHU's bogey teams. Apart from Coufal was was crocked by a bad Summerville foul at Leeds and Scamacca who was feeling his knee, Moyes plays a full-strength side.

Those who watched on iffy TV feeds said it was a poor game. Wissa and Lewis-Potter had a couple of half-chances for Brentford and Soucek missed a really good chance after being set up by Emerson. It wasn't settled unto the 79th minute when Rice made a great tackle to free sub Benrahma who shot from distance. A great strike, though Brentford reserve keeper Strakosha should have done better. Said, who refused to celebrate against his former side, now has six goals and is West Ham's second top scorer.

It's a good psychological boost to win any game and particularly against Brentford who have defeated us in all three games since promotion. So the Cup Final breakfast round at Nigel's gaff in Kew remains on — at least until we see who we get in the 4th Round draw today.

A game too far for tired Hammers

Brentford 2 West Ham 0

This was always going to be a difficult game after the exertions of Thursday night and so it proved. West Ham looked flat throughout and are paying the price for Moyes' refusal to strengthen the squad in the January window.

Mbeumo's early shot parried by Fabianski indicated the way the game was going. A header from Soucek is West Ham's only effort on goal in the first half while Brentford create a series of chances. To make it worse Zouma goes off injured, which is a major worry for Thursday.

The second half sees two preventable goals.The first is a flick from a throw-on as Mbeumo gets behind Cresswell to beat Fabianski at his near-post. The second is the result of Antonio losing the ball in Brentford's half, a cross coming in and Toney getting between the centre backs to score with a free header.

The Hammers did have Soucek almost connect with a corner and sub Benrahma fire a late deflected effort on to the roof of the net, but that was about it. A bus stop in Hounslow has done the double over West Ham.

So now the Irons have to concentrate on the difficult away leg against Lyon and six games after that to try and ensure we finish in the top six. But long-term a small squad isn't sustainable in modern football and we really need to invest in the summer.