Simon Adingra's double against Brentford secured our first win of our Premier League Summer Series campaign in Atlanta on Wednesday evening.
Adingra had a lively first half and gave us a warning of what was to come when he nearly beat Mark Flekken to a through ball, but the Brentford keeper won the ball on the edge of the box and cleared.
The Ivorian would get the better of Flekken though. A move that was reminiscent of Kaoru Mitoma’s goal against the Bees at The Amex in April, Jason Steele’s long ball was brought down by Adingra whose sumptuous touch setup a relatively straightforward finish past the stranded Flekken.
Julio Enciso couldn’t direct Joao Pedro’s through ball into the back of the net and from there it was Brentford who looked the more likely to score the second goal.
Frank Onyeka fired narrowly wide after cutting into the box from the left, before Keane Lewis-Potter missed a glorious opportunity to equalise. Yoane Wissa got in down the right of the box, pulling it across the face of goal to find Lewis-Potter, but the winger’s effort was cleared off the line by Joel Veltman.
Adingra had his second of the evening 13 minutes after the restart when Steven Alzate picked out the Ivorian, who took a touch before curling it into the bottom right corner from a tight angle.
Wissa looked to halve the deficit with a snapshot effort that Steele kept out with his feet before the Bees striker swivelled on the edge of the box and tried to tuck it in the bottom right corner, but again Steele was there to deny him, this time tipping it behind for a corner.
Deniz Undav lobbed wide, Wissa was again denied by Steele – from an offside position – and Evan Ferguson struck narrowly past the post as we saw out the game for a 2-0 win.
Albion line-up: Steele, Hinshelwood (Weir 65), Veltman (Turns 70), Webster (Samuels 71), Gross (Estupinan 59), Gilmour (Dahoud 70), Alzate (Caicedo 65), Buonanotte (Mitoma 59), Enciso (Ferguson 46), Adingra (Undav 65), Pedro (Peupion 70).
On the bench: Verbruggen, McGill, Baker-Boaitey.