Grimsby Town 0 Brentford 5: Professional Bees progress to Carabao Cup quarter-finals | OneFootball

Brentford booked their place in the quarter-finals of the Carabao Cup following a professional 5-0 victory against Grimsby Town at Blundell Park on Tuesday evening.

Goals from Mathias Jensen, Keane Lewis-Potter and Reiss Nelson put the Bees in control at the interval, before Fábio Carvalho converted a second-half penalty and Nathan Collins came off the bench to head in a fifth and round off a clinical outing display.

Nelson – who featured against Aston Villa in the previous round from the bench and netted a penalty in the shoot-out - made his full debut for the club as Keith Andrews made nine changes from Saturday’s 3-2 Premier League victory against Liverpool at Gtech Community Stadium.

Sepp van den Berg and Dango Ouattara retained their places in the starting XI, with the latter being deployed centrally.

A sublime pass from Jensen created the first chance of the game on eight minutes, as he split the defence to put Lewis-Potter in behind. The former Hull man, playing on the right side of the Bees’ attack, sent a low cross into the middle of the box which dropped to Nelson, who saw his snapshot blocked.

Grimsby responded with a well-worked opportunity of their own, beginning with an equally impressive George McEachran pass to the right flank. The ball was eventually worked to Charles Vernham, but the winger’s off-balance shot was collected by Hákon Valdimarsson.

The Mariners, buoyed by a vocal home crowd and full of confidence as League Two’s joint-top goalscorers, put together a nice move on 20 minutes but Evan Khouri’s header after being picked out at the back post did not have enough on it to trouble Brentford’s goal.

Moments later, the Bees took the lead courtesy of a classy Jensen finish. Lewis-Potter caught Grimsby in possession and played it inside to the Dane, who curled into the far corner of the net past a helpless Christy Pym for his third goal of the season in all competitions.

And it was 2-0 just four minutes later. Frank Onyeka led a counter attack, which looked to have fizzled out after the defence recovered to prevent Carvalho from progressing into the penalty area, but Nelson picked up the loose ball before knocking it past his man and dinking to the back post for Lewis-Potter to head home.

It would’ve been three on the half-hour mark but for a last-ditch challenge from Cameron McJannet, who poked the ball away from Ouattara in the six-yard box after Rico Henry - motoring down the left side having been found by another quality Jensen pass – had delivered into the box.

The west Londoners added a third just before the interval. Grimsby couldn’t deal with some quick interplay in and around the box and when Nelson picked up the ball on the edge of the D, he shuffled the ball onto his right foot before caressing it into the bottom corner.

The interval did little to halt Brentford’s momentum. Seven minutes after the restart, Jensen found Henry inside the area with a reverse pass, with the full-back playing it inside to Carvalho. The latter was bundled over and referee Thomas Kirk pointed to the spot. The Bees’ no.14 picked himself up to fire the resulting penalty into the bottom corner of Pym’s goal in front of the sold-out away end.

Grimsby, to their credit, kept going. Their best chance of the night came with just over 20 minutes remaining after Jaze Kabia was picked out by McJannet, but his back-post header fell wide.

Andrews, managing minutes with a trip to Crystal Palace to think about at the weekend, utilised all five substitutes in the second half, with Romelle Donovan introduced for his Brentford debut.

The youngster was involved as the Bees made it 5-0 on 75 minutes. He drove forward down the right side before finding Kevin Schade, who had a shot blocked behind. From the resulting corner, Jensen’s delivery was headed into the back of the net by Collins.

Schade had the ball in the back of the net late on but the offside flag was already up as he raced onto a Lewis-Potter ball over the top and stabbed the ball home.

Grimsby: Pym; Rodgers (Warren 58), Lavelle, McJannet, Sweeney; McEachran (Turi 58); Burns (Svanthórsson 58), Green (Walker 58), Khouri, Vernam (Rose 76); Kabia

Subs not used: Casper, Amaluzor, Staunton, Oduor

Brentford: Valdimarsson; Arthur (Kayode 71), van den Berg (Collins 60), Pinnock, Henry; Onyeka (Janelt 68), Jensen; Lewis-Potter, Carvalho, Nelson (Donovan 68); Ouattara (Schade 60)

Subs not used: Balcombe, Ajer, Damsgaard, Thiago

Attendance: 8,637

Andrews on Grimsby win

Keith Andrews praised his side's professionalism and attitude in their Carabao Cup round four victory against Grimsby Town at Blundell Park.

“We approached the game really well," said the Bees' head coach.

“The professionalism and attitude in the group doesn’t surprise me, we just maybe had to educate some of the players about what it might be like.

“Tactically, we didn’t change too much. With the personnel there was a lot changes because they deserved it, and they performed really well.”

Nelson ‘delighted’ with first goal and assist

Reiss Nelson hopes that he can now kick on at Brentford after marking his full debut for the club with a goal and assist in a 5-0 Carabao Cup victory at Grimsby.

"It’s been a bit slow for me coming here, with a little setback and injury," said the Arsenal loanee.

"I’ve been working in the background, so I was delighted to start today and get a nice assist and a nice goal - it’s about moving forward from here.

"Today, we showed our fighting spirit and the team we can be, even with all the changes we made."