Brentford 1 Sheffield Wednesday 2: Owls were lucky, admits Carvalhal

Owls Lucas Joao celebrates his winning late goal

The Bees, reduced to 10 man after the 36th minute sending off of centre back James Tarkowski, had dominated the second half and a second home win on the trot looked on the cards.

But an awkward bounce caught out his replacement Jack O’Connell and Wednesday sub Lucas Joao raced clear to draw keeper David Button to coolly slot home from 12 yards in the 89th minute.

Brentford winger Alan Judge equalised Atdhe Nuhiu’s 36th-minute penalty on 76 minutes with a rasping angled drive just inside the far post.

And when Jeremy Helan saw red for two bookable offences, the pendulum looked like it had swung back in the Londoners’ favour, until the late winner.

Bees head coach Dijkhausen said: “Football is a beautiful game but also a very cruel one. We were excellent in the second half with 10 men and playing three at the back and when we scored it looked like we would go on and win.

“We lacked quality in the first half so it’s a strange mental thing that we can be so good in second halves of games and not so good in the first. It is something we will talk about.”

Brentford looked far more purposeful once they had shuffled the pack after Tarkowski’s dismissal, the ineffective Konstantin Kerschbaumer making way for defender O’Connell.

“I was very proud of my team and the way they played that second half. As a team I am seeing signs that we are getting better and better but we need to add some consistency to our performances,” he added.

Wednesday boss Carlos Carvalhal said: “We were a little lucky, but not a lot lucky because we had some chances to score. This was our game. It was a very hard game. We started very well. We made some chances before the first goal and if we’d scored then the story of the game would be different.

“In the second-half we made some mistakes. We lost some energy and started losing easy balls. We were too comfortable because we were 1-0 up.”

Unlike Dijkhausen, who intends to appeal against the Tarkowski red card, Carvalhal said the football gods were smiling on his players at Griffin Park.

“It was our day. It was a lucky day. This is football. In the lottery we won 2-1. If we drew 1-1, we would say okay because we had a good first half with chances and they had a good second half with chances,” he said.

“But we are very, very happy, because we have had three wins this week.”

Brentford: Button, Clarke, Dean, Tarkowski, Bidwell, McCormack, Diagouraga, Vibe, Kerschbaumer, Judge, Djuricin. Subs: Woods,

Bonham, O’Connell, Yennaris, Barbet, Udumaga, Canos.

Sheff Wed: Westwood, Hunt, Turner, Lees, Pudil, Lee, Hutchinson, Wallace, Bannan, Marco Matias, Nuhiu. Subs: Loovens, McGugan, Bus, Helan, Lucas Joao, Lopez, Wildsmith.

Referee: Geoff Eltringham (Tyne & Wear)

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