Mbeumo shatters 10-man Ipswich to snatch last-gasp win for Brentford

Is Ipswich Town’s Premier League return doomed? For the most glorious period, it briefly promised to be everything they had hoped for. Two goals ahead, with their fans revelling in what looked set to be a triumphant trip to the Big Smoke, the visitors could start picturing the reality of a first top-flight win since April 2002.

The bubble rapidly burst when Brentford took a 3-2 lead and Harry Clarke was sent off, only for Liam Delap to grab the unlikeliest of late equalisers. And then it all fell apart at the death.

With the clock almost run its course, Bryan Mbeumo sent in a speculative cross deep in injury time that evaded everyone and somehow made its way into the Ipswich net. A frantic 4-3 win for the hosts and another result that will be difficult for Ipswich fans to swallow.

Perhaps Thomas Frank has unintentionally stumbled across an unlikely winning formula. His side had taken the lead in seven of their previous eight league games, but thrown away a league-high 11 points from those positions; an alarming statistic that followed the unwanted record of squandering 30 points after taking the lead last season. Then again, maybe this was just one of those freak encounters. The Brentford manager would surely not want to repeat this rollercoaster.

The mind-numbing absence of even the slightest modicum of excitement in the opening 28 minutes did nothing to suggest the near-constant thrills that were to follow.

Capitalising on Brentford’s worrisome defensive holes with decisive rapid counter-attacks, Kieran McKenna’s side went ahead when they struck twice in three minutes to leave their shellshocked hosts dumbstruck.

The first came after Sam Szmodics had been allowed to amble through the middle of the pitch unmarked, from where he positioned himself to receive George Hirst’s pass and finished with aplomb. Again catching Brentford’s defence unawares, the lead was quickly doubled when a beautiful defence-splitting pass from the captain Conor Chaplin found Hirst, who dinked neatly over the onrushing Mark Flekken.

From fleeting elation, the familiar flat feeling returned for those who had travelled from Suffolk, whose half-time refreshments were rapidly ruined by their hosts’ taste of their own medicine.

With the interval rapidly approaching, the ever-lively Keane Lewis-Potter drove powerfully down the left flank before working the ball inside to Vitaly Janelt, who squared for Yoane Wissa to finish first time from just inside the penalty area.

Just two minutes later, parity was restored. Wissa was again at the heart of the move, timing his run to perfection to latch onto Mikkel Damsgaard’s through ball and stroke goalwards. With the ball destined for the net, Clarke’s desperate slide prevented Wissa from adding to his personal tally, with the ball ricocheting off the Ipswich centre-back to ensure it went down as an own-goal.

Clarke’s first Premier League start soon worsened after half-time when he clumsily dragged down Lewis-Potter as the Brentford winger bore down on the Ipswich goal. The referee Lewis Smith initially judged the offence to have been committed outside the 18-yard box, but the VAR changed the decision to a penalty, which Mbeumo confidently smashed home.

Clarke received a yellow card for his troubles and his disastrous day was to end early when Lewis-Potter again drew the centre-back into a rash challenge on the edge of the penalty area, prompting Smith to send him off.

Ipswich thought they had produced the unlikeliest of stings in their tail when Leif Davis’s cross from the left found Delap, whose fine finish was his fifth league goal of the campaign.

But it was not to be. Mbeumo’s deep cross in injury time evaded everyone and Delap’s last-minute strike cannoned off the Brentford upright, to the heartache of the travelling fans.