It is well within Brentford’s capability to overwhelm many opponents with passing and pressure and so, for the sake of the contest, City taking an early lead was the best outcome. Henrik Dalsgaard committed a needless foul on Owura Edwards wide on the City left and Jack Hunt swung in a free-kick that nobody in red and white seemed keen to deal with as it bounced across their six-yard box. Vyner does not score many goals, in fact, his first for City came only a fortnight ago in his 48th outing for the club, but he was opportunistic here to steal in and prod home at the back post. Canoes had been knocked to the ground by Vyner’s burst and several Brentford players protested for a foul in vain but it was a dream start for the visitors.

It was a sixth of the campaign for the Spaniard, who found himself in a purple patch after a Boxing Day hat-trick at Cardiff and involvement in three goals in the 7-2 thrashing of Wycombe on Saturday. The city began the second-half as they had the first with Vyner, clearly in the scoring mood, denied by Raya from the edge of the box. It proved a false dawn. Fosu was picked out down the right by Mathias Jensen, advanced into a crossing position, and whipped in an inviting low ball. In the middle, Toney darted in front of Tomas Kalas and met it emphatically, finding the bottom corner.

It was yet another reminder of Toney’s lethal instinct inside the opposition box, as he reached 20 goals for the season. Toney is fast closing in on the 26 scored in all competitions by Ollie Watkins, the man he was signed to replace, last season. After City had shown little sign of getting back into it, Brentford’s third arrived a quarter-hour later. Again it was Fosu who made the difference, this time cutting inside past static City defenders to slip a pass-through to Ghoddos. His initial shot crashed back off the crossbar and the Iranian reacted fastest as it came back out and bounced off Hunt to fire home at the second attempt.

Brentford saw the game out comfortably. Dean Holden made a triple substitution to try and get a second wind from his team but the hosts were comfortable and had half-chances to add to their lead. There was time to bring Winston Reid, signed on loan from West Ham, for a few minutes. As the game entered three minutes of stoppage time, their comfort was interrupted. Well looked offside but a turning took the ball through after Antoine Semenyo had brought the ball into a dangerous area. It was an assured finish, taking a touch round Raya to score.