Brentford survived an early scare against Leyton Orient before Fabio Carvalho’s stunning first goal helped them into the Carabao Cup fourth round with a 3-1 win.
Thomas Frank made eight changes to the team that had been beaten by Manchester City in the Premier League on Saturday and the gamble looked at risk of backfiring when defender Brandon Cooper stunned home supporters in west London with an early tap-in to hand Richie Wellens’ side the lead.
But Frank’s stand-ins rallied and replied with three goals before the break, the highlight a fabulous overhead kick from Carvalho to equalise, before Mikkel Damsgaard’s header and Christian Norgaard’s 18-yard strike established a two-goal lead.
Fabio Carvalho scored his first Brentford goal since his summer move from Liverpool
Orient stayed in the game for much of the second half until captain Jack Simpson was sent off 20 minutes from time, as a brave display ended in a cup exit.
The team currently 22nd in the third tier began boldly, defying their lowly league placing. Inside the opening 10 minutes, impressive Tottenham loanee Jamie Donley carried the ball infield from the right, bounced an attempted through ball off Ben Mee and, as it broke back to him, hit a shot that deflected wide off Norgaard.
Bryan Mbeumo was denied a goal as Brentford saw off Orient
The opening goal moments later was no more than Orient’s early ambition deserved. Winger Diallang Jaiyesimi showed fleetness of foot to make space to shoot, hitting an effort that spun away to the right-back Tom James positioned near the touchline. He sent over a wicked cross that was side-footed in unmarked at the far post by Cooper.
The equaliser was not long in arriving. A superb run by Kevin Shade ended in him dispatching a low shot that pinged into the air off the foot of goalkeeper Josh Keeley. From the rebound, Carvalho leapt acrobatically to crash an overhead kick inside the post for his first goal since joining from Liverpool.
Damsgaard completed the turnaround after 26 minutes and this time Carvalho was the provider, whipping a fine ball to the far post that was finished with a clever diving header by the Denmark winger.
Carvalho was later denied by Josh Keeley as he looked to add to his tally
His countryman Norgaard rifled in the third before half-time. Carvalho tumbled over the leg of Orient’s Dom Ball on the edge of the box and, before the referee was called to make a decision over whether to award a penalty, Norgaard had aimed a devilish first-time effort into the far corner to make it 3-1.
Substitute Charlie Kelman ought to have brought Orient back into it on the hour mark but failed to squeeze his shot inside Hakon Valdimarsson’s near post after going clean through.
Mads Roerslev cracked a shot into the side-netting from 20 yards as Brentford sought to kill the game, before Orient’s fate was effectively sealed with Simpson’s sending off, shown a second yellow card for a needless rugby tackle inside his own half on Shade.
Frank dreaming of Carabao Cup glory
Brentford boss Thomas Frank:
“It depends on the strength of other clubs,” he said. “It’s been 11 years in a row of one of the top six winning it, so it’s difficult. But I think we’ve got enough depth in the squad.
“We just need to be less unlucky with injuries. Right now we have eight of our first-team players [out], normally you’d have two, three or maybe four. If it was only four then no problem. If we have them available, I think we have a strong squad.
“The aim is to go as far as possible and in the best case to win it. We played with great tempo and intensity. Big respect to [Orient], they started the game well, we couldn’t get on top of the game at 1-0.”
Wellens: We slowed it down too much
Leyton Orient boss Richie Wellens:
“First half we were very good, took the lead, but gave a couple of very poor goals away.
“The difference is when [Brentford] get to the final third their runs are explosive. With us, it was pass, pass and we slowed it down too much.”
