Gary O'Neil apologises as angry Wolves fans make feeling clear and Brentford take advantage
BRENTFORD 5-3 WOLVES: Gary O'Neil's side held out the Bees for 77 seconds, but the Midlands club find themselves rock bottom after conceding five to Thomas Frank's men
There was a longer wait than usual for the goals to arrive at the bus stop in Hounslow.
Having scored in the opening minute of their previous three league games, Nathan Collins was 17 seconds late into the box to score Brentford's opener. The Bees failed to win any of those three games, losing to Manchester City and Tottenham, while West Ham hit back to grab a 1-1 draw last week.
But another three goals arrived before the break from Bryan Mbeumo, Christian Norgaard and Ethan Pinnock as Thomas Frank's side finally took advantage of a flying start. It looked as if this might be a familiar story, though, when bottom side Wolves twice hit back to level in a thrilling opening 45 minutes where defending was at a premium.
Nelson Semedo picked out Matheus Cunha to slot in Wolves first equaliser just two minutes after Collins headed in Mikkel Damsgard's cross. But while winless Wolves were threatening on the ball, they were absolutely dismal off it.
Brentford regained the lead when VAR spotted Totti had pulled down Collins from a Mikkel Damsgard corner. Mbeumo sent Johnstone the wrong way with his 19th-minute penalty, side footed into the bottom left corner.
By now both sides had thrown out any notion of defending. Collins' half clearance fell to Rayan Ait-Nouri, whose low 26th-minute cross into the six-yard box was brilliantly turned in by Jurgen Strand Larsen.
Surely now, Gary O'Neil's bottom feeders would dig their heels in and consolidate what they had? Nope.
There was not an Old Gold shirt within two yards of the ball as it was pinged from Damsgard, to Vitaly Janelt then Norgaard to place a right-footed 28th-minute shot across Wolves keeper Sam Johnstone into the far right corner.
Wolves still had one more defensive howler left in them before the break, as Pinnock was left unmarked at the far post to powerfully head Damsgard's corner beyond Johnstone's outstretched right arm.
Bees sub Fabio Carvalho added a fifth in the 89th-minute from a Keane Lewis-Potter cross. There was still time for Air-Nouri to score a third for Wolves but it will be of little comfort for O'Neil.
There were boos from the Wolves fans at half-time and full-time, and cries of "you don't know what you're doing" when midfielder Andre was taken off early in the second half.
O'Neil apologised to the away fans that remained at full-time, and post-match declared it was "the worst performance from a team since I've been here".
Now the Wolves boss faces a nervous international break because his side were miles off what is required as a defensive unit at this level.
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