Birmingham City 1 Brentford 6: Collins brace helps Bees cruise into Carabao Cup round three | OneFootball

Brentford booked their place in round three of the Carabao Cup with a resounding 6-1 victory over Birmingham City at St Andrew's.

Callum Wilson opened the scoring on his first competitive start for the Bees before Demarai Gray levelled for the hosts, but Aaron Hickey and Nathan Collins restored Brentford's advantage before half-time. Mikkel Damsgaard and Igor Thiago then struck in quick succession after the break, before Collins completed the scoring with his second of the night.

Wilson, Jaidon Anthony and Jannik Schuster all made their first competitive starts for Brentford, with the latter making his senior debut for the club. Keith Andrews made eight changes for the League Cup tie, with Collins, Vitaly Janelt and Dango Ouattara the only players to retain their places from Saturday's 3-0 Premier League victory over Tottenham Hotspur.

Brentford threatened inside five minutes when Anthony met Damsgaard's cross from a short corner, but the winger could only steer his header wide.

A minute later, the Bees were ahead.

Yehor Yarmoliuk won possession in midfield and quickly found Wilson, who turned and struck first time, clinically arrowing a low effort into the bottom corner.

Collins was next to threaten from a Janelt corner. The centre-back's header was drifting wide and Yarmoliuk threw himself towards the ball in an attempt to divert it goalwards, but was unable to make contact.

The hosts also went close from a corner when Christoph Klarer headed narrowly wide, with Hákon Valdimarsson appealing for a foul as the delivery dropped into the six-yard box.

Birmingham did find an equaliser on 28 minutes.

After Schuster was booked for a foul outside the box, Paik Seung-ho took the resulting free-kick short to Gray. The winger was afforded space on the edge of the area and his low strike travelled through a crowd of players, leaving the unsighted Valdimarsson unable to keep it out.

Parity lasted only six minutes.

Janelt's cross was only partially cleared, with Bright Osayi-Samuel's second intervention sending the ball towards Hickey on the edge of the box. The full-back caught his half-volley cleanly and watched it creep beyond Allsop, off the inside of the post and into the net.

Andrews' side added a third before the interval.

Damsgaard fed Anthony down the left and, after Birmingham failed to deal with the winger's delivery, Collins rose to head home and give Brentford a 3-1 half-time lead.

Birmingham began the second period better, but it was Brentford who continued to create the clearer openings.

Another well-worked corner saw Janelt combine with Anthony, whose cross was met by Schuster, but the debutant headed narrowly wide.

Anthony then saw an effort blocked, before Hickey's cross-shot flashed across goal, and Damsgaard curled a free-kick narrowly over after Kevin Schade had been brought down on the edge of the area.

Gray tested Valdimarsson with a free-kick at the other end, before Birmingham substitute Jay Stansfield teed up Jhon Solís, whose deflected effort flew over the crossbar.

From the resulting corner, Brentford launched a devastating counter attack to score their fourth.

Valdimarsson released Janelt, who carried the ball forward before finding Anthony on the left. His low delivery reached Thiago, who cleverly left the ball for the arriving Damsgaard to finish confidently from close range.

Three minutes later, it was five.

Damsgaard split the Birmingham defence with a superb pass for Anthony, whose first-time cross was perfectly weighted for Thiago to convert from close range and score his first goal of the season. It was Anthony's third assist of the night on an impressive maiden competitive start for the Bees.

Brentford added a sixth with 15 minutes to play.

Mamadou Sangaré collected possession on the edge of the box and delivered an inviting cross for Collins, who powered his header beyond Allsop to claim his brace and Brentford's sixth.

It rounded off a fantastic evening for Andrews' side, who progressed to round three of the Carabao Cup in style.

Birmingham City: Allsop; Osayi-Samuel, Klarer, Fry, Lund (Cochrane 61); Jhon Solís, Paik (Iwata 83); Vicente, Kanya (Stansfield 61), Gray (Neumann 75); Vázquez (Priske 61)

Subs not used: Beadle, Laird, Roberts, Ducksch

Brentford: Valdimarsson; Hickey, Collins, Schuster, Henry (Lewis-Potter 71); Janelt (Kayode 71), Yarmoliuk (Sangaré 48), Damsgaard; Ouattara (Schade HT), Wilson (Thiago 62), Anthony

Subs not used: Kelleher, Ajer, Jensen, Carvalho

Attendance: 17,722

Andrews praises Bees’ strength in depth

Head coach Keith Andrews praised Brentford's response after the Bees progressed to round three of the Carabao Cup with victory over Birmingham.

"The scoreline obviously suggests it was maybe easier than it was," said Andrews. "We had to come here and earn the right to play.

"We knew we would have to come here and deal with what Birmingham would bring, so it certainly wasn't easy to get ourselves in front.

"They equalised and I thought we came again really well, strongly and swiftly.

"In the second half, you could see the impact that we have now from the bench, the rhythm of players getting up to speed so quickly and the impact that's made at so many different levels."

Anthony on 'professional' Birmingham win

Jaidon Anthony shared his thoughts after marking his full Brentford debut with three assists in an impressive win at St Andrew's.

"It was really good and really professional from the boys," said the winger.

"The manager said it from the start, we’re taking the competition very seriously.

"We’ve got an unbelievable squad. We were able to rotate a bit and everyone put in a good shift.

"Dams [Damsgaard] and the rest of the squad are unbelievable players. I know if I make those runs, then they’ll be able to find me. I did that today and managed to get some assists from it."