Brentford take a small step away from the relegation zone with Leeds United draw

Brentford (0) 1 v Leeds United (0) 1

Henderson 70

Calvert-Lewin 82

By Kaz Mochlinski at the Brentford Community Stadium

Premier League

Matchweek 16

Jordan Henderson’s first goal for Brentford proved precious in picking up a point against Leeds United to take the Bees a little further from the threat of relegation in the lower reaches of the Premier League table.

In a close encounter between two excellently-coached, well-organised and evenly-matched sides, Brentford took the lead in the latter stages but could not stop Leeds from equalising before the end.

A couple of assists from two substitutes eventually opened up a pair of determined defences, creating goals for two older England internationals in Henderson and Dominic Calvert-Lewin, who are both thriving at their new clubs this season.

Rico Henry and Wilfried Gnonto came off the bench to provide the crosses for their respective teams’ goals. However, Brentford had to be grateful again to the magical Mikkel Damsgaard for the skill which set up their score.

The only previous time the Dane was not named in the starting line-up for a home league game this season was against Chelsea, which ended in the Bees’ solitary draw prior to the visit of Leeds. On that occasion, Brentford rescued a point late on.

This Sunday afternoon in contrast found them failing to hold on to an advantage carved out by Damsgaard after being sent on as a second half substitute. Unequivocally, the hosts massively missed his input before that change.

He made an impact on the match in an instant, with a perfectly weighted pass down the left wing for Henry to take in his stride and cross first-time left-footed towards the near post, where Henderson running in applied a first-time right-foot finish.

At the age of 35 years 180 days, Henderson became Brentford’s oldest ever Premier League goalscorer. His last goal in the competition had been four years ago for Liverpool against Everton. And he reacted now with a Liverpudlian link.

Spontaneously, Henderson reproduced Diogo Jota’s trademark celebration of sitting down and pretending to play a computer game, in memory of his late teammate and friend, who had been on the scoresheet with him back in December 2021.

“It was his birthday recently,” Henderson explained afterwards. “We will never forget him. We will always remember him forever.

“I can only imagine what the lads at Liverpool are going through. He was a good friend... I don’t score many goals so I thought I would dedicate it to him.”

The unfortunate Leeds central defender Jaka Bijol also made a double contribution to the goal by inadvertently diverting Henry’s cross into Henderson’s path and then deflecting the resulting shot past his goalkeeper, Lucas Perri.

Bijol’s punishment was to be removed from the game within three minutes, bravely being replaced by the United manager, Daniel Farke, with a forward in Gnonto. And it was largely thanks to the winger that Leeds drew level.

Gnonto put over a fine floated ball from the right flank which picked out Calvert-Lewin, in between Nathan Collins and Kristoffer Ajer in front of goal, to power in the kind of header which the six foot two inch striker relishes.

It was Calvert-Lewin’s fourth goal in four consecutive Premier League matches for Leeds in the space of 16 days, coinciding with the side’s upturn in form, as his improvement compensates for Lukas Nmecha’s continuing absence with a thigh injury.

Leeds’ summer signing on a free transfer from Everton is still only 28 years old. And it is easy to forget that he played with Henderson for England at Euro 2021, although Calvert-Lewin has not appeared again for his country since then.

Farke’s friendship with his fellow German coach currently in charge of the English national team, Thomas Tuchel, could get Calvert-Lewin looked at more closely for the World Cup. That will anyway be unavoidable if his scoring streak persists.

At Brentford, his equaliser meant that the West London club were only ahead for 12 minutes. Disappointingly, they have now lost 13 points from winning positions in the Premier League this season, more than any other side.

The Bees were increasingly precariously placed again after being beaten in four of their previous six games. At kick-off, Brentford were 15th in the table, two spots above Leeds, whose recent resurgence had just got them out of the relegation zone.

Farke feels that finishing 17th will be a success this season for his newly-promoted team but Brentford’s fantastic form at home and Leeds’ fragility in away matches made this a difficult fixture in which to obtain a positive result.

Brentford had won five of the seven league contests on their own pitch before this, while Leeds had lost six out of seven on the road so far during the current campaign. Neither wanted to settle for a draw, although it was not too bad for both.

The outcome could have been better for the Bees with the awarding of a penalty by the referee, John Brooks, 10 minutes before half-time, when Gabriel Gudmundsson pulled back Dango Ouattara on a run into the box.

A VAR review confirmed that there was just about enough contact to give a foul, but extended checks caught Ouattara making his move slightly too early onto Mathias Jensen’s left-footed chip from inside-left and the spot kick was cancelled for offside.

Brentford: (4-1-4-1) Kelleher - Kayode, Collins, van den Berg, Hickey (Henry 61) - Janelt (Yarmoliuk 80) - Ouattara, Henderson, Jensen (Ajer 80), Lewis-Potter (Damsgaard 61) - Igor Thiago

Leeds United: (3-5-2) Perri - Rodon, Bijol (Gnonto 73), Struijk - Bogle, Tanaka (Aaronson 73), Ampadu, Stach, Gudmundsson (Justin 89) - Calvert-Lewin, Okafor (Harrison 92)

Attendance: 17,159