Report: Saints stung by five-star Bees

The Bees wasted no time, going in front inside six minutes when Mikkel Damsgaard’s piercing through ball set up Kevin Schade for the opener.

Captain Christian Norgaard then headed against the crossbar, but Saints finished the first half strongly, with Paul Onuachu denied by goalkeeper Mark Flekken and Tyler Dibling shooting narrowly wide.

Brentford thought they had doubled their lead early in the second half, only for Sepp van den Berg’s header to be ruled out by VAR, but a quick-fire Bryan Mbeumo brace put the result beyond doubt, as the in-form forward fired into the roof of the net before calmly dispatching a 69th-minute penalty.

Mbeumo then added an assist to his match-winning display, finding Keane Lewis-Potter for the first of two stoppage-time goals, as Yoane Wissa also got in on the act to complete the scoring in stoppage time.

Ivan Jurić made two changes to his side following Sunday’s 2-1 defeat at Crystal Palace, handing only a second start of the season to Kamaldeen Sulemana, who replaced Adam Armstrong in the line-up, and Lesley Ugochukwu, who came in for the suspended Mateus Fernandes.

It was the visitors who took the initiative from the start, scoring from the first notable attack of the game.

Damsgaard stole in to dispossess Joe Aribo, rode the challenge of Ugochukwu and threaded a pass inside James Bree, just out of reach of the right wing-back, for Schade to score, nudging it past the onrushing Aaron Ramsdale from 10 yards.

Ivan Jurić was joined on the touchline by new coaches Matteo Paro and Stjepan Ostojić for the first time

Saints tried to get a foothold in the game by playing the ball up to Onuachu and building from there, but the Bees were buzzing around the midfield and reclaiming possession.

The proven partnership of Mbeumo and Wissa combined to nearly double the lead midway through the first half, only for Ramsdale to spread himself and keep out Wissa’s tentative finish.

Then Kyle Walker-Peters was the first player to go into the book for a foul near Saints’ left touchline, from which Mathias Jensen delivered and Norgaard glanced a header on to Ramsdale’s crossbar.

Missing the creativity of the suspended Fernandes, Dibling, fresh from scoring his second goal of the season at Selhurst Park, set off on a solo run but was crowded out on the edge of the Brentford box.

With the wing-backs pushed forward, Saints threatened an equaliser late in the first period when Walker-Peters’s cross from the left was nodded back across goal by James Bree and met by Onuachu, who sent Flekken sprawling to his right to make his first save.

Saints were improving. A driving run from Aribo along the byline set up Dibling, who had time to take a touch and shoot from 15 yards, but he just dragged the chance wide of the near post, brushing the side-netting on its way wide.

By the end of the half Brentford were pinned back, clearing crosses and grateful to see Taylor Harwood-Bellis fire the loose ball into the Chapel Stand.

Jurić made a double change in the back five at the interval, with Yukinari Sugawara taking over from Bree at right wing-back and Charlie Taylor replacing Nathan Wood as the left-sided centre-back.

Having stung Saints at the start of the first half, the Bees were determined to do the same at the start of the second, as Mads Roerslev forced a near-post save from Ramsdale before Harwood-Bellis crucially blocked Wissa’s close-range effort.

It would take a VAR intervention to prevent the hosts falling two behind after van den Berg headed home an Mbeumo corner, seemingly unchallenged, only for replays to confirm Wissa had held back Jan Bednarek and stopped the Pole from attacking the cross.

Tyler Dibling goes for goal at St Mary's

Having already made two defensive changes, Jurić made two attacking alterations immediately after the VAR reprieve, replacing Onuachu and Kamaldeen with Cameron Archer and Armstrong.

There was a chorus of defiance from the Northam Stand as Saints rallied, but Dibling missed the ball completely when it dropped kindly for a volley on the edge of the box.

Wissa then spurned a glaring chance when Schade’s flick on sent him clean through on goal, skewing his shot wildly off target as Ramsdale advanced, but the second goal Brentford had been threatening finally arrived on 62 minutes.

This time Wissa turned provider, receiving Mbeumo’s pass and waiting for the run of his partner in crime, rolling the ball into his path for Mbeumo to crash home his 12th goal of the season into the roof of the net from the left corner of the six-yard box.

Things got worse for Saints six minutes later when Mbeumo’s far-post cross towards van den Berg tempted Ugochukwu, who possibly just lost his balance but did grab on to the defender as he fell, dragging him down for a penalty.

VAR checked it, but the delay was much shorter this time, the decision stood and Mbeumo buried the spot-kick as Ramsdale dived the right way but could not get there.

Mbeumo’s clever flick gave Lewis-Potter the chance to get his name on the scoresheet, but this time the visitors were not so clinical.

The hat-trick hunting Mbeumo, the star of the show, missed a hat-trick chance when his backheel rolled past the post, but did set up Lewis-Potter for Brentford’s fourth before Wissa put the icing on the cake of Brentford’s first away league win of the season.

Southampton: Ramsdale, Bree (Sugawara 46), Harwood-Bellis, Bednarek (c), Wood (Taylor 46), Walker-Peters, Ugochukwu, Aribo (Lallana 87), Dibling, Onuachu (Archer 55), Kamaldeen (Armstrong 55).

Unused substitutes: McCarthy, Bella-Kotchap, Manning, Brereton Díaz.

Booked: Walker-Peters, Harwood-Bellis.

Brentford: Flekken, Roerslev, Collins, van den Berg, Lewis-Potter, Nørgaard (Maghoma 81), Jensen (Janelt 70), Damsgaard, Schade (Yarmoliuk 81), Mbeumo, Wissa.

Unused substitutes: Valdimarsson, Kim, Arthur, Meghoma, Konak, Yogane.

Goals: Schade (6’), Mbeumo (62’, 69’ pen), Lewis-Potter (90+2’), Wissa (90+4’).

Referee: Stuart Attwell.

Attendance: 31,001.