Brentford v QPR: Bees to take derby day spoils

Brentford v QPR
Friday November 27, 19:45
Sky Sports

Brentford back to winning ways

Ivan Toney scored his 11th goal of the season to give Brentford a narrow and overdue 1-0 victory at in-form Barnsley on Tuesday night. The Bees' leading goalscorer glanced Mathias Jensen's corner across goal and into the bottom right-hand corner midway through the second half to settle matters at Oakwell in a match featuring few clear-cut chances.

Toney was denied a second from close range after opening the scoring and substitute Marcus Forss was also foiled late on as Thomas Frank's team earned a first win in four Championship fixtures. However, the Danish boss preferred to focus on the positives as Brentford secured a third successive clean sheet, are now unbeaten in six games.

Frank said, "It was a very good win and I was very pleased with the performance. I think we looked very solid, structured and mature in more or less everything we did. I loved the patience in the first half because Barnsley are a very good side. We gave zero chances away. We need to score more set-piece goals and we looked dangerous today at set-pieces."

QPR move into mid-table

QPR beat Rotherham 3-2 in a lively encounter at the Kiyan Prince Foundation Stadium in midweek. Ilias Chair fired Rangers ahead via a double deflection but the Millers levelled seven minutes before the break. However, Bright Osayi-Samuel struck in first-half stoppage time and Lyndon Dykes added a penalty to give the R's a 3-1 lead at the break.

Mark Warburton's team looked the most likely to add to their tally during the second-half, although Rotherham saw a goal ruled out before pulling one back with six minutes remaining. That strike set-up a frantic finale, but Rangers survived four minutes of added time to see out the match and move up into the safety of mid-table in the Championship.

Warburton was happy with his side's first-half efforts post-match, saying: "We had a very good first half and met the challenge early on, moving the ball quickly. We got the goals and in truth - very respectfully - should have had at least double that. We played their game in the second half and easily could have dropped two points. We must learn from that."

Bees enjoying recent match-ups

Brentford have bagged five successive home victories over QPR at second-tier level and the Bees are aiming to protect an impressive record of losing just once against their bitter rivals at home since 1961 (W7-D3-L1). The hosts were clear and deserving 3-1 winners when the two teams locked horns in both of last season's two Championship tussles.

There's a consensus Brentford 1.664/6 haven't quite hit their straps this season. The Bees - renowned for their slow starts - have earned only five victories in their opening 13 outings, whilst taking top honours just twice in five league fixtures at their new stadium (W2-D3-L1). However, Thomas Frank's outfit remain top of the majority of performance data metrics.

QPR 5.905/1 arrive on the back of three league triumphs in five (W3-D1-L1), including a commendable effort against highly-rated Watford. Nevertheless, inconsistency has tended to blight Mark Warburton's reign and the Hoops have tended to toil when taking on the league's elite away; Rangers have W2-D5-L7 at top-half teams since the start of last term.

Brentford to bag derby day spoils

West London derby dates between Brentford and QPR have largely been enjoyable affairs for the neutral in recent years. Since the duo settled in the second-tier, eight of their 10 league meetings have banked for Over 2.5 Goals 1.784/5 backers, including each of the past seven across all venues, five of which produced a minimum of four goals.

Six Brentford shutouts this term, combined with Rangers firing blanks in seven of their last 14 trips to top-half teams is a little off-putting when looking to back a goal-heavy game but the aforementioned figures should encourage punters to support a Bees victory alongside Over 1.5 Goals via the Same Game Multi and generous 1.90 quotes on Friday night.

QPR have recorded just five clean sheets in games as guests under Mark Warburton's watch and shipped at least three goals in half of their six away days already in 2020/21. In contrast, 23 of Brentford's 29 Championship wins since the beginning of last season have featured at least two goals.