Hopeless West Ham embarrassed by Brentford as fans stage boycott

West Ham fans picked the right night to stage a boycott as their side slumped to a dispiriting 2-0 defeat at home to Brentford .

Goals from Igor Thiago and Mathias Jensen were enough to secure a first away win of the season for Brentford, who should have won by a lot more.

Nuno Espirito Santo ’s first home match in charge coincided with a planned stay-away organised by supporters’ groups in protest against the club’s board.

It seemed as though West Ham’s defence had also not bothered turning up in what was an alarmingly poor display.

On the day Graham Potter – sacked by the Hammers last month – was named as the new manager of Sweden , his replacement got a stark illustration of the mess he has been left with.

West Ham have now lost their first four home matches of a season for the first time in their history, and have won only twice at the London Stadium all year.

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There were thousands of empty seats around the cavernous ground, and those who stayed away also missed a curious home starting line-up including a rare sighting of Andy Irving.

The 25-year-old Scottish midfielder was handed a full home debut, a mere 780 days after he signed for the club from Austria Klagenfurt.

Nuno also dropped one of their better performers in El Hadji Malick Diouf while naming two strikers – Callum Wilson and Callum Marshall – on the bench with Lucas Paqueta in attack.

It was the Brazilian who played in Jarrod Bowen for an early opportunity, but the Hammers skipper’s shot across goal curled all the way out for a throw-in.

Brentford soon began preying on West Ham’s defensive frailties, not least their inability to defend set-pieces. First Jordan Henderson swung in a free-kick which Nathan Collins headed just over, before Thiago grazed the crossbar from Dango Ouattara’s flick-on.

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Hammers keeper Alphonse Areola then tipped away Mikkel Damsgaard’s header and deflected Thiago’s shot wide. Corners were by now just an invitation to have a pop at goal and Ouattara planted yet another free header wide.

The only surprise was that it took 43 minutes for Brentford to score.

The goal came courtesy of Max Kilman’s risible attempt at clearing a routine ball over the top which allowed Kevin Schade to nip in behind and hook the ball to Thiago. Areola got a hand to his shot but the ball spun away and nestled inside the far post.

It was Brentford’s 15th attempt at goal during the first half while West Ham had two, their second a Bowen curler tipped wide by Caoimhin Kelleher in stoppage time.

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There was still time for Thiago to find the net again before the break, only for his effort to be ruled out by VAR for offside.

Nuno’s response to being a goal down at the break was to bring on three new defenders at half-time; Aaron Wan-Bissaka, Konstantinos Mavropanos and Diouf.

They did little to help, with Bees centre-back Sepp Van Den Berg the next to waste a free hit at goal from another corner before Schade’s header came back off the crossbar.

Areola also saved from Thiago and Keane Lewis-Potter curled a shot narrowly over. Brentford finally wrapped up the win in stoppage time when Lewis-Potter cut the ball back for fellow sub Jensen to fire into the roof of the net.