The Football tourist

Dear Mr. Southgate

An Open Letter To England Manager, Mr. Gareth Southgate

Dear Mr. Southgate,

Since you took on the England job back in 2016 you have transformed the fortunes of our beloved national team, with only Sir Alf Ramsay having a better record in tournament football.

You took a team on it’s knees and taught it to stand again, concurrently turning the fans from doubters to believers. The national discourse around the team used to be toxic with many fans expecting the team to fail on the biggest stage and enjoying ripping them to shreds in that failure, you have changed that.

Runs to the latter stages of tournaments have gone from a pressured rarity to a glorious expectation under your leadership and for this, fans across the nation will be forever grateful. Watching England reach the Semi-Finals of World Cup 2018 and the Euro 2020 Final at Wembley are memories that will make me smile forever.

The only problem with raising the level that much is that making those deep runs at major competitions becomes an expectation and with expectations comes pressure; both the team and yourself appear to be wilting under that pressure at Euro 2024.

The lack of desire and harmony the team showed in the second half against Serbia and throughout the entirety of the Denmark match was disheartening, especially as there seemed to be no plan to re-invigorate the performance.

Taking the lead in both matches sent a wave of joy round the pub, but this quickly turned into a tidal wave of frustration and anger as the team shrunk backwards and backwards, turning in on itself like an organism devouring itself.

Inviting our opponents to impose their will on proceedings, ratcheting up the pressure on our defence and strangling the life out of our attacking forays as they became rarer and rarer as the match wore on.

As England Manager I am sure you understanding the reasons for this timidity of action just as the game appears ours to control, but to a vast majority of us fans it seems wilfully perverse to so readily surrender the initiative when pushing on with an approach that has already delivered results is the option surrendered.

We have a plethora of attacking players that are the envy of all other teams at the Euros, so why not give them license to express their abilities and terrorise opposing defences??

Jude Bellingham and Phil Foden are both generational talents that can control any midfield, so pick one of them and let them command the pitch.

Yes, dropping one to the bench to allow the others game to flourish would be a hard call to make but if the results are worth it then that is what must be done. You are paid to make the choices no-one else has the will to make and the hardest choices require the strongest wills, so gather your strength and make the choice!

If it were my decision Bellingham edges it, with Foden a replacement past the hour mark with fresh legs to rip a tired opposition defence to shreds.

Replacing Foden with the pace and width of Anthony Gordon, who will run at defenders and skin them clean, would be my pick on the left as this would also provide a much needed foil for the diminishing speed of Harry Kane up front.

Personally, I would even be tempted to replace Kane with Ollie Watkins for the Slovenia game as he created more problems for the Danish defence in his mini cameo than Kane did for anyone in both games combined.

Please stop allowing fear to rule your heart Mr. Southgate and trust yourself to make the tough choices needed to turn this tournament around for us. Trust the players to score a second following the first and stop ordering the team to cower backwards once we have a lead, we are good enough to go for the jugular and rack up big scores, so please let the players prove me right.

We have an incredible team and you are an incredible manager, you even managed to get us winning a penalty shootout!!!!!

The nation trusts you, so trust yourself and trust the players. We went unbeaten for a whole calendar year with this team for a reason.

Please take on board what I have said here Mr. Southgate and lead the nation to victory on July 14th.

Kindest Regards,
A concerned England Fan

Euro 2024 Shocks

After an enforced break from the blog to deal with a health issue, this blog is back on the day Euro 2024 experienced it’s biggest shocks so far.

I’m not talking about England recovering from that loss to Iceland in their final warm-up friendly to stagger past Serbia in their opening match, cause we finally have a team that knows how to turn it on for tournaments. We have become the new Germany but, as we saw on Friday they haven’t lost the knack for that either.

I’m actually talking about our fellow favourites France needing an own goal to crawl to victory over Ralf Rangnick’s unfancied Austrians.

Less than 3 minutes after Christoph Baumgartner spurned a glorious chance when 1-on-1 with Mike Maignan, it was Max Wober who had the unfortunate honour of nodding a Kylian Mbappe cross past Patrick Pentz and into his own net.

Mbappe and the rest of France’s attack flattered to deceive for the rest of the match and only once came close to doubling their lead.

The Wizard, who fired his nation to the World Cup final 2 years ago, did the hard part to beat his marker just inside the Austrian half and carry the ball all the way into the penalty area before screwing up the easy part and smashing the ball wide of the right-hand post.

If that is a sign of what’s to come from France then Poland and the Dutch can rest easy.

France however are in the thankless position of having to reboot a stuttering strikeforce without their talisman, who had to be removed from the action late on with a facial injury which looked like a broken nose

Romania on the other hand can continue to celebrate for the rest of the week if events today in their group are an indicator of what’s to come.

The Tricolours ripped their neighbours to shreds with a simple 3-0 victory as Ukraine suffered a chastening start to their Euro’s campaign. Could have been worse though, they could have been Belgium.

Clear favourites to top their group the Red Devils, ranked 3rd in the FIFA Rankings, came unstuck in spectacular fashion against a Slovakia team that many had pinned as the whipping boys of the group.

It took just 7 minutes for Belgium to shoot themselves in the foot by gifting their opponents with a goal on a plate that was quickly snaffled up, thanks to a signature defensive mix-up to give themselves a mountain to climb.

The worst thing was just how close they came to doing so even getting the ball in the back of the net twice, only for both of Romelu Lukaku’s emphatic finishes to be chalked off.

The first fell foul to a tight offside call, but not one that Belgium can feel too hard done by.

They can feel righteously hard done by the decision to disallow the second though as the ‘handball’ VAR found in the build up to the goal was harsher than the legendary Bloody Code. There was no way for the winger to avoid the ball bouncing up onto his hand as he ran in behind the Slovakian defence.

If that’s a handball then there will be hundreds given in every match across every league the world over. I’m sure there was a line in the rule somewhere about an ‘unnatural position’ and the hand was in the most natural position possible.

Whilst Belgium will point to those decisions to explain their loss away, in truth it was the sheer amount of wasted opportunities that cost them the match.

Having the ball in the net twice in a match would be great for most teams, but given Belgium’s dominance of proceedings it was scant return for their industry. Woodwork and insane goal-line clearances thwarted them on multiple occasions, but an unacceptable number of chances were sent high and wide.

It’s finishing like that which will fill the Tricolours with expectations of a positive result from their Saturday showdown with the Belgians.

Of all the shocks that could have happened at these Euros the team ranked 3rd in the world messing up a group that looked like a gimmie on paper is not the one many expected by it’s the one we got from this goal laden tournament so far.

Roll on the opening games of Group F.

The Threat of Dynasties

As the English domestic season came to it’s stuttering anti-climax at the weekend, the lack of drama at either end of both EPL and WSL part of me was glad I was working and unable to make any of the matches.

If my weekend had been free I would have spent the Saturday at Old Trafford watching Emma Hayes lead her Chelsea side to their 5th successive WSL title before heading down to London on Sunday to see my beloved Bees torn apart by the Magpies on Tyneside, whilst constantly checking my phone for updates that could give any hope of Arsenal overtaking Guardiola’s juggernaut and saving us all from more City title celebrations.

City became the first team ever to win 4 English Men’s top flight titles in a row and when added to Chelsea’s quintuplet of Women’s titles it leads me to one undeniable truth…

Whilst dynasties are being challenged in Europe and toppled in Germany, new ones are being built in England and that makes me nervous.

One of the huge selling points of English football is it’s unpredictability, whilst Spain, Scotland and Germany are all leagues where one of 2 teams will probably win the title and France has just one title contender, in England any of the top 6/7 teams used to be able to succeed.

Heck, there used to be a time not so long ago when a team in there second season in the league could win the title despite 5,000-1 odds!!! Welcome back Leicester…

However it seems these heady days of underdog stories and a hyper-competitive league with something resting on every game are long gone.

Perhaps that golden age of competitiveness is also a myth, nostalgia lying to me, but I still remember it.

With the introduction and flawed implementation of VAR already sucking much of the joy out of top flight football, Wolves attempt at removing it and returning the game to it’s pure form looking dead on arrival, the rise of these new all conquering dynasties threaten to make certain games just not worth going to anymore.

A large part of the joy and magic of the game is the hope that today might be my team’s day, we could beat that ‘big’ team and make memories that will last forever, that this season could be my team’s Leicester or Leverkusen of the moment and create miracles that bring joy to people far outside the usual reach of us ‘little’ teams.

The English top flights seem worryingly short on that vital hope that keeps fans coming back every week, with it feeling inevitable all season that every new team heading straight back down there is none of that fundamental hope for miracles that makes this beautiful game of our so incredible to be a part of.

The stories of Wrexham and Stockport County, Crawley and Ipswich Town (promotion on their first ever Wembley day and back to back promotions back to the top table respectively), provide glimmers of hope that those miracles we all live for are still possible.

I cross my fingers that those glimmers bloom into beaming rays that light up the game once more.

Sorry this blog turned into such a sombre one, but that’s where my head is at with the game as things stand at the end of a season that has left me drained and empty.

I may take a break from the blog now OR I may be back very soon with a more uplifting blog about the WSL game I was at this time last week, at a stadium I love and with an uninterrupted pitchside view of the action that may have led to me taking 434 pictures across the 90 minutes.

The Magic Of Football

With the Premier League becoming boring and predictable as Guardiola’s juggernaut strut their way to their 4th straight title and the 3 newly promoted teams drop straight back down to the championship, https://the-football-tourist.com/2024/05/13/straight-back-down/ ,it is to the lower leagues that those desperate to feel the magic of football send their soul soaring are increasingly turning.

There is nowhere better to find this magic than the crazy lottery of the playoffs.

Once most teams are on the beach there are 4 teams from each EFL league that keep going on a course they hope will end up with a day to remember under the arch.

To get to Wembley and the chance of promotion they must first face off in a two-legged home and away showdown and it’s these semi-finals that I found the magic again.

Pouring out of the Mornflake Stadium onto Gresty Road at the end of Crewe’s 2-0 first leg defeat the fans around me were convinced their team was done and another season in League 2 was on the cards.

Later that week this downcast throng of humanity was exploding in ecstasy after an incredible comeback in South Yorkshire that ended with an incredible shootout victory to send the Alex to Wembley and leave Doncaster Rovers fans wandering what the hell just happened.

It’s days like those that fans live for, your team is dead and buried and then from nowhere a miracle is pulled and you’re planning a trip to Wembley for next weekend.

Whilst Crewe’s crazy comeback provided a dose of magic for one fanbase the Crawley Town’s crushing of a franchise on the other side of League Two provided magic for two fanbases.

Obviously witnessing your team humiliate the opposition 3-0 in the home leg before going to their soulless Stadium MK and sealing an away win, 5-1, in front of half empty home stands will have been incredible for fans of The Red Devils.

It may have been even sweeter for fans of the true Dons though as the franchise that stole their team got humiliated on the national stage, on the back of beating beaten at Plough Lane for the first time in MK’s short history.

The True Dons fans will relish the chance to make it back to back home victories over the franchise next season.

On Sunday Crewe Alexandra will face off against Crawley Town for the ultimate prize of promotion.

Surrounded by friends, family and strangers they will celebrate or commiserate at fulltime, joined together by an unbreakable connection with the team they love, that is the magic of football…

Straight Back Down

This weekend confirmed what many of us thought would happen all season, the 3 newly promoted teams are heading straight back down to the Championship.

Sure there had been moments where it looked like one or more of them may survive, but even with points deductions galore above them and injury ravished runs of poor form for others the return of last season’s second tier teams straight back to that level is now all but confirmed.

Sheffield United’s relegation was confirmed weeks ago and with just 3 wins all season they looked more likely to snatch Derby’s record than safety. A paltry 16 points from 37 games is a woeful return in any league, but whilst their inability to average a goal scored a game (35) is dreadful it is at the other end that their hopes of survival fell apart.

Conceding triple figures in any league would be terminal, but to concede 101 goals so far is criminal by the brittlest blades ever forged. They come from the steel city but there defence is made of wet paper. To avoid the dreaded double drop next season it is at the back that they need to strengthen most.

***Witnessing One Of Just 3 Blades Wins All Season***

The second team to follow the Yorkshire men through the Premier League trapdoor ply their trade just across the border in Lancashire and they made a far better fist of fighting for survival.

Burnley put together some excellent performances and even looked at times to be putting together a run of form that would propel them out of trouble, but their inconsistency in keeping these form runs going has proved their downfall.

They were better than Brentford when we visited Turf Moor a few months ago (https://the-football-tourist.com/2024/03/21/the-nightmare-was-real/) and if they had put together more performances like that they could still be in with a chance on the final day.

As it is though Vincent Kompany’s battling Clarets continue their yo-yo trajectory between the top 2 leagues.

A late loss to Spurs on Saturday turning the final day visit of Nottingham Forest from a potential winner takes all nail-biter into nothing more than a chance for the home faithful to show their appreciation for the never-say-die attitude their team has shown all season.

The tenacity shown by the Lancashire lads makes me hopeful that another promotion parade will be making it’s way down the streets of Burnley next summer.

By far the most galling of the trio of relegations for the neutrals is the demise of Rob Edward’s Luton Town.

Luton have been many neutral’s second or favourite club in the league this season and as underdog stories go it would have been incredible to see them survive, but alas reality is often disappointing.

On a shoe-string budget, for the Premier League, Luton have played some incredible football this season and those fans lucky enough to visit Kenilworth Road’s enigmatic away end will have had an experience matched by few others in Premier League history.

This tiny Bedfordshire club has given as good as its got across the season and many teams have found out just how difficult they are to kill off in games.

After a baptism of fire in which the Hatters lost their first 2 games 7-1 on aggregate they slowly found their feet and gave more than one of the big boys a huge challenge to overcome.

On January 30th they avenged their opening day defeat on the south coast by smashing the Seagulls 4-0 at Kenilworth Road. Winning against a team on their way to the knockout rounds of the Europa League will have provided memories that will stick with the home fans for decades to come.

Coming agonisingly close to doing the double over Newcastle is another incredible memory for Hatters fans to treasure, but it could have been even better had they held on for the win on Tyneside when holding a 4-2 lead just after the hour mark.

The draw at St. James Park hinted at an underlying issue for the hatters though as they found themselves unable to hold on for crucial results under pressure, as they would show again just weeks later by surrendering a 3-0 half-time lead to leave the Vitality Stadium without a point.

Pushing Liverpool and title-chasing Arsenal to the wire at home, with both all-star teams requiring goals after the 90 minute mark to secure results against the tenacious Hatters.

One more result goes Luton’s way and they could have stayed up and every neutral in the land would have celebrated like it was their own team winning the league.

Unfortunately, losing 3-1 to West Ham on Saturday has left them a mountain to climb on the final day. Not only do they need already relegated Burnley to destroy Forest, but they also need to humiliate Fulham at Kenilworth road to have any hope of overturning their 12 goal deficit on goal difference to the East Midlanders.

Realistically Luton Town are already down, but in this crazy league many fans will be hoping for one final crazy day that keeps them up.

Derby Dozed-Off

Some days you should just stay in bed, some games put you to sleep, some days things just don’t go your way.

Yesterday was one of those days and one of those games.

The date had been etched into my diary ever since this season’s fixtures were announced last summer. The big home Derby against local rivals Fulham should have been a classic match and if we still had our safety at stake it might have been.

Unfortunately, by kick-off neither team had anything to play for and it showed…

Far be it for me to agree with the away fans, but after the match when a couple of them said “out of 10, that was a 1” all I could do was nod.

As I was leaving the stadium at full-time a few of the other quotes I heard were:
“That was embarrassing”
“What a crap game”
“Could’ve been carboard cut-outs”
and my personal favourites
“That was a waste of my Saturday”
and
“You didn’t have to sit through 90 minutes of that shit” – to the stewards telling us to relax as we waited for access to the platforms at Kew Bridge after the match.

Perhaps Gary Lineker summed it up best on MOTD:
“the clue was that Friday night’s 1-1 draw with Luton and Everton went ahead of it”.

No-one who sat through the full 90 can argue with that.

There was not a single moment that looked like breaking the deadlock and saving the 17,090 souls in the stands from being subjected to the first 0-0 we have hosted against that lot since 1949.

Whilst Bryan Mbuemo smashed a shot off the bar for the Bees that was the closest either team came to making the net bulge, as the visitors in particular seemed intent of crushing the faces of fans in row Z.

The worst offender for the Cottagers was Raul Jimenez who ballooned over from just 10 yards out, after a cross had deflected to him in acres of space towards the end of this snooze-fest.

Mbuemo’s wait for his 50th Brentford goal goes on as Ivan Toney, who I’m told was on the pitch all game, sees his run of goalless games reach double figures for the first time in 5 years.

In a season that will not live long in the memory of most Brentford fans this was a game many will be happy to forget.

Both Are Safe Now

As I took my front row seat at Goodison Park I was filled with the hope of back-to-back wins that had propelled us clear of the dotted line and the joy of knowing that Luton’s loss at Molineux had rubber stamped our Premier League status for another season.

As the final whistle blew I was filled with relief that those previous results had launched us to safety as what I’d just witnessed from the Bees was pitiful.

With both teams looking to make it 3 wins in a row and historic results in their most recent match my hopes for a classic were high; I was about to be mightily disappointed.

After a frenetic opening 5 minutes the teams settled into the midfield morass that would characterise the rest of the half.

On the few occasions the ball broke out of the morass it was the visiting defence that found itself by far the busiest. The visitors attacks ended when no-one gambled to get end of the decisive balls being whipped in, whilst the hosts should have taken the lead within 6 minutes.

Dwight McNeil was allowed to sprint into acres of space on the Everton right and Youssef Chermiti was milliseconds away from sliding home the resulting tantalising cross.

That was the closest either team came to scoring in a half where both keepers could have gone for a refreshing shower and no-one would have noticed.

Everton did at least try to create some moments of excitement but they were strangled in the crib thanks to a masterclass in team-defending by the Bees, with Mbuemo, Wissa and Toney all seen tracking back to cut out attacks far more than launching their own.

**A Glorious View, Just A Shame About The ‘Spectacle’**

The lack of half-time substitutes from either team was mystifying, but as Everton made their first of the match in the 75th minute, it spoke volumes that Brentford were making their 3rd and 4th.

In a half totally bossed by the Toffees, the visitors best chance came early in the half when Ivan Toney was fed the ball in the box and slid the ball in true daisy cutter style towards goal only for his England teammate Jordan Pickford to drop on the ball like a bear on a salmon.

It was a good thing for both that Gareth Southgate was not in the stands though as that was the last telling contribution from either player.

The second half was Everton’s playground and after McNeil rattled the bar with a 20-yard thunderbolt it was not surprise that the hosts got the only goal of the match on the hour mark.

McNeil’s shot would have been a beautiful way to win a match, but Idrissa Gana Gueye smuggling the ball home through a jungle of legs after a tussle in the box was far more fitting for this match.

The rest of the match was more mediocrity from the Bees and a lack of killer instinct from the Scousers but at full-time the home fans didn’t care.

Riding high off the back of their first home derby win since 2010 the win in this one confirmed the Blue scousers final season at Goodison Park will be a Premier League one.

As for the lacklustre Bees, this felt like they were on their way down from the high of an unforgettable victory at Kenilworth Road as we had a day to forget in a season to learn from.

Today’s performance will be a distant memory as we step out at the Gtech on Saturday to celebrate securing a 4th straight Premier League season in-front of a packed house, with just the ultimate party-poopers from round the corner to overcome.

Doing the double over those Cottagers would be the perfect response to this toothless display.

5-Star Bees!!

Having been unable to secure a ticket to Luton for Today’s match I’ve been a bag of nerves all day. Unable to even follow the match because of how crucial it’s result will be for our season.

A win would mean a 10 point gap to the drop zone with just 12 left to play for and the chance to be safe before kicking off at Goodison next weekend, but a loss would drag us back to just 4 points away from the dreaded dotted line.

I had to run out to Wembley and experience the atmosphere of the FA Cup Semi-final build up just to distract myself.

Our record outside London this season is undeniably abysmal and with Goodison Park our destination next weekend being a notoriously hellish place to go today would be the day to turn that record around.

The bottom 2 are no threat, so today we were facing down the only team that could send us down. They could reach a maximum of 40 points before kick-off, so all we need is 8 points from the final 5 matches and getting 3 from this one would settle a ton of my nerves.

Those were my thoughts before the match so the grin that splashed itself across my face as I watched the highlights on Match of the Day could have lit up the whole of England.

**Another Premier League Season Beckons**

From minute 1 the Bees belied any nerves by swarming all over their hosts and refusing to retrieve their knees for the orange necks until the final whistle.

Yoane Wissa’s first goal of the afternoon saw the visitors sweep the ball from one end of the pitch to the back of the net with just 3 touches.

A sumptuous ball over the top from Kristoffer Ajer dropped into Bryan Mbuemo’s stride down the right, the Cameroon international’s deft flick took out the remains of the Hatter’s defence and left a charging Wissa the simple task of smashing home past a stranded Thomas Kaminski.

The home keeper was left wandering how his defenders had evaporated into fresh air again just before the break as a simple 1-2 between Wissa and Mbuemo left the former with the simplest of tap-ins from the edge of the 6-yard box.

If Rob Edwards hoped that the half-time break would hail a change in the host’s fortunes this was snuffed out by the returning Ethan Pinnock just after the hour mark.

On his first start since picking up an injury during the miracle of Wolverhampton the Jamaican international proved his worth to the Londoner’s by firing a bullet header home from 8 yards simply by outmuscling his marker.

Luton’s defending to this point could charitably be described as amateurish and for the Bees fourth goal, just 2 minutes later, it was truly woeful. All it took was one misplaced pass 20 yards out and 5 seconds later Kaminski was picking the ball out of the net.

Mikkel Damsgaard picked up the loose ball and with one flick of his foot took 6 Luton players out of the game.

Mbuemo was on his wavelength though and snapped onto the pass before stretching to flick a bouncing ball across a six-yard box devoid of teammate for a Keane Lewis-Potter to ghost in and nod home at the back post.

With fresh air all that was left defending the home goal Kevin Shade took the opportunity to reopen his Bees account as he continues his return from a season curtailing injury. He was picked out by a Vitaly Janelt’s lateral across the edge of the 6-yard box for him to rifle home at the back post with not a hatter in sight to stop him.

***A Premier League View Till May 2025***

As with many of Brentford’s best moves of the match Mbuemo was involved again and it was solely due to his unwavering unselfishness that his virtuoso winger/midfielder performance was not capped with a goal, having seen a thunderbolt cannon of the bar when the score was just 1-0.

The only thing that could take any shine of the Bee’s 5-star performance was the 92nd minute consolation goal gifted to Luton by a loose pass from Janelt on his 100th Premier League appearance for the club.

In truth though Brentford were so dominant that nothing could ruin the elation of their victory over the only team that can still squirm out of the bottom 3.

The visitors returned home safe in the knowledge that they could be safe before they kick-off again and even in the unlikely event that Luton win every one of their remaining games 3 more points is all we require to be mathematically safe.

With this win in the bag Brentford can start planning in earnest for another season in the Premier League and with better luck on injuries and returning to the top half of the table they had finished in during each of their previous seasons at this level.

As for Luton, things now look extremely bleak with just 4 games left to bridge the gap to safety and their nearest rivals awaiting the results of appeals against the points deductions that have left them within the Hatter’s reach.

Remember This Feeling

**Remember Where You Were For This One, if only that was the ticket price…**

Saturday should have been a dreadful day for me.

My alarm didn’t go off which left me sprinting for a train that was then delayed on it’s 2 and a half hour journey south. Then problems on the tube had me rushing to get in before kick-off.

After the game I was already cutting it close to get back to Euston for my train north. Then the EIGHT minutes of injury time and a closure of Kew Bridge station threw a spanner in my plans and left me watching the train leave the station as I ran down the platform.

Twenty minutes and £50 worse off I was grinning from ear to ear as I headed back north, with joy surging through my veins having just witnessed the wonderful.

For the first time in 10 games and more than 2 months I saw my beloved Bees win again!!!

Vastly improved performances recently had seen Brentford secure decent draws in our last 3 matches in a row, all against teams on the edge of Europe, and today we would finally get the 3 points our performance deserved.

Our last 3 point haul came from this game in the midlands, https://the-football-tourist.com/2024/02/20/witnessing-a-miracle/, and on paper this was the perfect opportunity to grab our next.

As the teams trudged down the tunnel after an uninspiring half there was no sign of what was to come after the break. Both teams had struggled to create clear cut chances and with the exception Neil Maupay firing the ball past the post from 12 yards with the goal at his mercy, having sprung the visitors’ offside trap after 35 minutes neither keeper had been nearly busy enough.

This was especially worrying for the home faithful as the hosts had barely troubled a back line that had leaked like a tsunami all season, conceding a ridiculous 82 goals so far.

The second half would change all that.

Whatever the words of wisdom Thomas Frank imparted to his team during the break were they worked wonders as the bees came swarming out of the traps in the second half and 20 minutes later they scored a hat-trick of goals, just a shame only one of them counted.

Within seconds of the restart Yoane Wissa had sliced through the blades defence like it was made of butter and only a poor final touch prevented him opening the bees account.

Perhaps this is why he used his head to bundle home Mathis Jensen’s tantalising cross from point blank range in the 55th minute only for the outpouring of relief and joy to be stuffed back into the bottle by a late offside flag.

Nothing was coming to the Blades rescue in the 62nd minute though when Mikkel Damsgaard picked up the ball just inside the United half and drove forward through a half free of opponents. He looked to cut the ball across to either Wissa or Bryan Mbuemo only for the ball to ricochet off the legs of the luckless Oliver Arblaster and nestle in the net.

It was the luckiest of breaks for the hosts and they would follow it up by finding the net again less than 120 seconds later.

This time Damsgaard needed no deflection to rifle a gorgeous finish into the bottom left corner from 18 yards out, having been picked out perfectly by Mbuemo’s freekick, only to see the goal chalked off by VAR, which spotted a foul by Nathan Collins in the build up.

Having watched the replays it feels generous to suggest that Ollie McBurnie would have closed down the chance if he hadn’t been blocked off but no matter, it would just take us a while longer to double our account and secure the victory.

It took two of the three 89th minute home subs just 3 minutes from entering the fray to combine for that long overdue second.

On their return from long term injuries Kevin Shade got a deft flick on a long throw from the left to knock the ball into the stride Frank Onyeka, who celebrated his return by stroking the ball underneath the Grbic’s desperate dive.

As the final whistle blew the noise inside the Gtech deafened me as my soul soared high above me drinking in this feeling. The euphoria of seeing my team win again after so long and launch themselves 7 points clear of the drop in the process, I’m holding back tears of joy as I write this.

Coming into this weekend there was a scenario where we ended it just 1 point above the dotted line, instead we won convincingly and jump 7 points clear with just 15 left to play for.

With the run-in ahead, starting with crucial back to back away games against those around us, there will be nervous moments when doubts creep in about our ability to stay safe. When those doubts rear their ugly heads remember how you felt last night, remember the unbridled joy of victory, remember this feeling and smile safe in the knowledge that WE WILL BE STAYING UP

Boring Brentford

When the away fans are chanting ‘Boring, Boring Brentford’ at full time and when you look around for someone to fight your team’s corner but everyone is just going “They’ve got a point” you know it’s been a dreadful game.

As spectacles go it was 1,000 times worse than watching paint dry and certainly duller than ditchwater.

The worst part of sitting through 90 minutes of the Bees sit back and let Brighton amble around in front of them without threatening to make Mark Flekken work for his money was knowing that the game a few days earlier, that I couldn’t get too, was a cracker.

The showdown with Manchester United on the Easter weekend saw Brentford hammer their visitors into the ground for 90 minutes, hit the post more times than could be counted only to get hit by a 96th minute sucker punch and when all hope looked lost Kristoffer Ajer popped up with a 99th minute equaliser to salvage a point for the Bees that should’ve been all 3.

As I write this Brentford have played their first game since the Brighton borefest and at top 4 place chasing Aston Villa’s Villa Park they fired in 3 goals in 9 second-half minutes to flip a 2-0 deficit on it’s head, only to see ex-bee Ollie Watkins nick a point for the hosts in the final 10 minutes.

Either game was an enthralling spectacle and would have made a thrilling blog… I was working through both. So instead I travelled the 2 and a half hour south on delayed trains, dodging cancellations, to sit through a pile of dross where it took 35 minutes for the first corner to occur (the hosts wouldn’t get their first till the 59th minute).

Apart from a brief 5minute spell half way through the first half it was Brighton dominating possession all match.

What did they do with this domination? dribble the ball round the edge of the penalty area whilst the Bees refused to get within 5 yards of an opposing player.

Despite a nap on the train down I’m certain I drifted off in the second half, I’ve never seen two teams so determined to make people prefer Golf…

The only even vaguely interesting moment was provided by VAR, which took everyone in the stadium by surprise when it flashed up on the screen that it was checking for a possible penalty to Brighton.

Not even the away fans seemed clear on what might have caused the penalty.

The most shocking part of the whole VAR saga was not the lack of info for fans in the stadium, we are all far too used to that, but the fact that the ref went to the screen to check the incident and gave a freekick to Brentford.

The whole thing was surreal and a welcome if short diversion from the dearth of quality on the pitch that was leaching the hope out of the stands.

When the final whistle blew I felt only joy because, unlike American sports, if the scores are equal at the end of the 90 there is no overtime.

Feeling relief at leaving a football ground is new to me and it’s a crushing feeling I never want to feel again.

***That’s Quite Enough of You Two For Now***

We are so much better than the team that showed up on Wednesday and the games that sandwiched it are proof of that. All that I can do is hope that when I’m down again next weekend for the Sheffield United 6-pointer we play much better than we did at Bramall Lane on December 9th.

Without a win in our last 9 games and slowly sinking into the relegation battle with just 5 points added to our tally from those games, this visit of the bluntest blades known to man is the perfect opportunity to begin the climb back up the table.

Want to relive happier Brentford times, click the link for the story of the miracle of Wolverhampton https://the-football-tourist.com/2024/02/20/witnessing-a-miracle/