Daryl Murphy scored twice and Paul Anderson and Tommy Smith once each as Town won 4-2 at Brentford to briefly hit the top of the Championship for the first time this season. Murphy opened the scoring in the first minute, then added the second on 21 before Anderson made it 3-0 on the half hour. Late on, Bees sub Sam Saunders netted twice either side of Smith’s 82nd minute goal for the Blues.
Town boss Mick McCarthy named an unchanged side with Jonny Parr keeping his place at left-back with Tyrone Mings not yet ready to return from the infected toe which saw him miss last week’s 2-0 home victory over Middlesbrough. Brentford also named an unchanged team.
The Blues went in front via the first attack of the game inside the opening 20 seconds. After the home side had surrendered possession on halfway, Teddy Bishop headed the ball to Anderson, who found Championship top scorer Murphy on the left of the area and the striker hit a shot across Bees’ keeper David Button and into the net to claim his 15th goal of the season.
Town went close to a second in the eighth minute when one-time Bees loanee Tommy Smith played a low ball across the box from the right following a corner. David McGoldrick dummied and former bee Jay Tabb, warmly applauded by his old fans before the game, shot over from 12 yard when he might well have netted his second goal in two games.
The Bees enjoyed the greater share of the ball as the game moved towards the 15-minute mark but without threatening Bartosz Bialkowski’s goal. The Blues, meanwhile, continued to look a threat on the break when the home side’s moves broke down.
On 16 Andre Gray headed a Jake Bidwell cross from the left wide, then two minutes later at the other end Murphy wasn’t too far from his second of the afternoon when Luke Chambers sent a throw-in in to his feet inside the box, the Irishman turning and hitting a low right-foot shot which Button saved down to his right.
Play immediately moved to the other end, Bialkowski uncharacteristically fumbling Jota’s edge of the area effort. Christophe Berra cleared the loose ball ahead of Gray.
The Blues increased their lead in the 21st minute. Jonny Parr cleared a Brentford attack and sent Murphy chasing the ball along with Bees’ centre-half Tony Craig. The Blues frontman out-muscled the defender, who stumbled, before taking the ball into the area, rounding Button and slipping home his 15th goal of his remarkable season.
Two minutes after the second goal Moses Odubajo was booked for preventing Town from taking a freekick. McGoldrick eventually slammed the set piece into the wall and Bishop volleyed the rebound well over the stand.
Having established their two-goal lead, Town were happy to sit back and allow Brentford to play most of the football and then break when the Bees lost possession.
And the Blues’ third goal in the 30th minute came from just such a counter-attack. Tabb broke down the left and crossed low to Murphy, who wafted a leg at it but Anderson behind him turned in his first goal of the campaign.
On 39 Bialkowski saved sharply from Gray’s close-range header from Alex Pritchard’s right-wing cross, Jonathan Douglas fouled Chambers as he looked to get on the loose ball.
Two minutes later, Gray teed-up Douglas on the edge of the box but a combination of Bishop and Smith prevented the former Leeds man from getting in a shot.
Shortly before the break, Chambers tried to play McGoldrick through on goal but the striker couldn’t reach it ahead of Button.
Referee Fred Graham blew his whistle to confirm a half-time scoreline beyond most Town supporters’ Christmas wishes.
Once they’d got the early goal the game was perfectly set for the Blues to sit back and let the Bees take the game too them then catch them on the break.
Brentford played some good football but to little effect with the Town defence once again resolute and when the Bees lost the ball the Blues exposed the frailties of a home backline which was out-muscled and caught playing too high a line.
Toumani Diagouraga struck a weak long distance effort through to Bialkowski soon after the restart, then on 48 Murphy smashed a low freekick past the Brentford wall but too close to Button, who claimed at the second attempt. A minute later at the other end McGoldrick blocked an Alan Judge freekick.
The early stages of the second half followed much the same pattern as the first with Brentford having a lot of the ball but rarely threatening, while Town looked potentially more dangerous on the counter.
Just before the hour mark winger Judge tested his former Notts County team-mate Bialkowski with a low shot from the edge of the box which the Polish keeper saved at full stretch.
Berra did well to dispossess Jota as he brought the ball into the area soon after with the Bees beginning to look more dangerous.
On 64, after Craig had been booked for a foul on Anderson, the Blues winger made way for Noel Hunt, while the Bees switched Douglas for Jon Toral. Two minutes later, Jota shot wide from the edge of the box.
Chambers sent Murphy away battling with Harlee Dean in the 70th minute on a break similar to the striker’s second goal. This time the centre-half was able to get in a toe and the ball ricocheted through to Button.
Two minutes later, with the Bees’ dangerous spell by now having been quelled, the Blues switched Tabb - who was given a warm ovation by his former supporters as well as Town fans - and Bishop for another ex-Bee Stephen Hunt and Kevin Bru.
Smith almost got a foot to Stephen Hunt’s cross from the left following a corner, prior to Brentford swapping Judge for Sam Saunders.
And it was the sub who would pull a goal back for the home side in the 81st minute. Toral found Saunders wide on the left and his deflected shot looped over Bialkowski and into the net.
But Town restored their three-goal lead with in two minutes. Smith had a header from a corner blocked on the line. Bru tried to find himself space on the edge of the box before feeding McGoldrick, who moved it on to Smith, who cut inside a defender before curling a superb right-foot shot into the top corner.
The Blues quickly went looking for a fifth, Stephen Hunt slamming Murphy’s cross from the left wide with the striker appearing to have been looking for the deeper McGoldrick or Noel Hunt.
In the last minute of normal time Saunders stabbed home his second of the afternoon after Town had failed to clear a cross from the left to make it 4-2.
Brentford continued to press for more goals in four minutes of injury time but the Blues were not to be denied their fourth away win of the season and top of the Championship. 'We are going up,' sang the 1,680-strong travelling Blue Army behind the goal.
The result was never really in doubt from the moment Murphy netted his 15th and then 16th goals in the first half. Anderson’s third all but sealed it.
Brentford kept going and played some good football but Town’s success this season has been based on their solid backline so it was always going to be a tough ask.
Saunders’s first goal gave them some hope which was all but killed by Smith’s strike immediately afterwards and the sub’s late second was nothing more than a consolation.
Town, who beat Doncaster 3—0 away on Boxing Day last year, most recently scored four goals while winning on their travels in the 5-3 win at Barnsley in November 2011, while they scored four in the 4-4 draw at Derby last season.
The Blues were last top of the Championship on the opening day of that 2011/12 campaign but last headed the division at this point in a season during 2004/05.
Town's stay at the top was short, Bournemouth returning to the summit after beating Fulham 2-0 at home later in the afternoon, however, with their unbeaten run now up to 10 games - seven of them wins - the Blues' automatic promotion ambitions look ever more realistic.
Brentford: Button, Odubajo, Dean, Craig, Bidwell, Douglas (Toral 64), Toumani, Pritchard, Jota, Judge (Saunders 75), Gray (Proschwitz 65). Unused: Bonham, Dallas, Tarkowski, Smith.
Town: Bialkowski, Chambers, Smith, Berra, Parr, Skuse, Tabb (S Hunt 72), Bishop (Bru 72), Anderson (N Hunt 64), Murphy, McGoldrick. Unused: Gerken, Clarke, Ambrose, Sammon. Referee: Fred Graham (Essex). Att: 12,165 (1,680).