Brentford B fell to their first defeat in nine matches as Queens Park Rangers U23 won by three goals to nil at Griffin Park.

With a number of Bees players either away on international duty or out on loan, Kevin O’Connor opted for a 4-3-3 formation with First Team goalkeeper Luke Daniels selected between the sticks and Justin Shaibu flanked by Herson Alves and Sergi Canós in attack.

The game started brightly as both sides sprayed the ball around with confidence on a sodden surface. Rangers forward Danny Rowe worked the first opening of the game on three minutes but sliced wide from the edge of the area. A minute later and it was Canós’ turn to introduce himself; dropping a shoulder prior to curling over the crossbar.

After a decent spell of possession the visitors went ahead in the 13th minute. Aramide Oteh – who had gone close himself during the build-up – picked out Dan Darbyshire at the back stick who nodded past a helpless Daniels. The Bees could have been on level terms two minutes later; Canós blazing over after Ali Coote’s low ball evaded a queue of players in the QPR area.

Oteh forced a reaction save from Daniels on 17 minutes in what was becoming an end-to-end encounter in West London. Having seen his initial drive palmed away by Daniels, R’s number nine could only find the side-netting on the follow up. Brentford hit the side netting themselves shortly after; Coote firing narrowly wide after a neat swivel saw him advance into the Rangers area.

Oteh was never far from the action; testing Daniels with a near-post effort with 25 minutes on the clock. Centre-half Giles Phillips stepped up from the back-line four minutes later, exchanging some passes on a foray into the final third before bending narrowly over the crossbar and into the Ealing Road end.

After a frantic opening, the hosts wrestled some control of the tie midway through the first period. Coote stung Seny Dieng’s finger tips just after the half-hour mark, before Shaibu glanced a header just wide of the far post having met Lukas Talbro’s well-weighted cross from the right-hand side. That proved to be the last action of the half as The Bees headed in for the interval trailing by one.

Canós had looked a constant threat during the first half and he came within inches of levelling things up within a minute of the restart. Having hurdled a couple of challenges the Spaniard let fly from the edge of the D only to see his dipping effort rebound back off the crossbar. Dieng was equal to Raphael Assibey-Mensah’s effort four minutes later following a cleverly-worked set-piece, before Bradley Clayton drilled narrowly wide from 15 yards as The Bees began to turn to screw.

In the 70th minute Romeo Akinola doubled the visitors’ lead with his first touch, smashing home a low free-kick from 20 yards. QPR could have added another seconds later as Oteh nodded just wide of Daniels’ right-hand post.

Akinola bagged a second in the dying stages, nestling a thunderous drive past Daniels and into the far corner. The former Scunthorpe United stopper was tested twice in stoppage time, pulling off two reaction saves to keep the score at 3-0.

Brentford B: Daniels; Chatzitheodoridis, Sorensen, Edobor, Talbro; Clayton, Coote, Assibey-Mensah; Alves, Shaibu, Canós (Novak 66).

Subs not used: Hill, Hardy, Kirk.

QPR U23: Dieng; Kakay, Fox, Wallen, Paul; Phillips, Alfa, Stylianides (Akinola 66); Oteh, Rowe, Darbyshire.

Subs not used: Hudnott.

Attendance: 427