Brentford soared into the Premier League’s top six and deepened West Ham United’s relegation fears with a 3-0 win at the Gtech Community Stadium.

An end-to-end first half somehow contained just one goal, with Konstantinos Mavropanos scoring in his own net while attempting to stop Michael Kayode from tapping home.

Mavropanos also had a goal disallowed at the other end and Valentin Castellanos hit both posts in the first half, before Brentford turned on the style in the second period.

Igor Thiago’s penalty – awarded for El Hadji Malick Diouf’s foul on Dango Ouattara – made it 2-0 soon after the interval, and Mikkel Damsgaard’s cultured finish added some gloss in the 82nd minute.

While Brentford climb three places, leapfrogging Brighton & Hove Albion, AFC Bournemouth and Chelsea, 17th-placed West Ham remain two points above the relegation zone and will drop into the bottom three if Tottenham Hotspur beat Aston Villa on Sunday.

How the match unfolded

Brentford made the breakthrough in the 15th minute. Kayode prodded the ball against the post and Mavropanos’ desperate lunge resulted in him flicking the loose ball off his own crossbar and in, under pressure from the Bees right-back.

Castellanos’ curler bounced off the upright before Mavropanos put the ball in the correct net, but a VAR review found he was offside when meeting Diouf’s free-kick.

And the chances continued to flow for the rest of the first half. A huge misjudgement from Mads Hermansen went unpunished as Damsgaard curled wide of an open net, while Thiago could only produce a tame effort after breaking in behind.

Castellanos hit the woodwork again with a leaping header and later saw an audacious volley pushed over by Caoimhin Kelleher, while Hermansen thwarted Keane Lewis-Potter at the other end.

But the Hammers ‘keeper was sent the wrong way by Thiago’s penalty nine minutes into the second half, after Ouattara darted into the area and was scythed down by Diouf.

West Ham hit the woodwork for a third time via Crysencio Summerville, though that was the closest they came to halving the deficit, and the contest was over when Damsgaard turned inside the area and calmly finished into the far corner.