Sunday 22nd May 2022: Premier League Final Day: Brentford Community Stadium: Brentford vs Leeds United
So here it is, the final day of the Premier League season and I am going into this match incredibly laid-back because Brentford are already safely marooned in mid-table and having a turbo charged end to the season. The Bees came into this one having not lost at home since a 2-0 reverse to Newcastle on 26th February and haven’t conceded a goal in the 360 minutes of football they have played at the Brentford Community Stadium since then.
My mood was further relaxed to the point that I was almost horizontal by the fact that the Bees final day opponents were Leeds United. The Yorkshire team are in dreadful form coming into this one, having not won since 9th April when they beat the Hornets 3-0 at Vicarage Road.
Leeds had only managed to secure 2 draws from their last 5 matches, losing the other 3, and coming into this one they knew that another draw would be no good to them. Their awful run of recent form meaning that their fight to maintain their Premier League status for another season was now out of their hands, due to their despicable -38 goal difference.
The only way they were staying up now was to fight for their lives to get a positive result from this match and hope that Newcastle United would be able to take points off Burnley, also fighting for their lives, at the Lancashire team’s home of Turf Moor. Their goal difference being 20 worse than the Clarets meant that equalling the host’s result at Turf Moor will be no use at all.
There were only two rays of sunshine on this pile of dark omens for the travelling Leeds faithful. The first being that Burnley haven’t managed to win on the final day of the season in any of their last 5 seasons during their current run in the Premier League. The second being that they did manage to score a 95th minute equaliser in the home match against the Bees. Knowing that they can score late goals against their opponents today may prove to be crucial if they need a goal to stay up with things going their way elsewhere. The only small problem with all that though is that Brentford have manged to salvage 15 points from losing positions this season so Leeds can’t count their chickens till the final whistle blows.
My route to the stadium was a little different to usual as I had come down to London for a rearranged (2020’ed) concert on the Saturday evening, so I had to get a District Line train from Victoria aiming for Gunnersbury and looking to walk from there. The first train to arrive at Victoria was a Wimbledon service so I had to make my way to Earls Court, to change there, accompanied by a load of bouncing Chelsea fans and Watford fans on their way to their teams Premier League swansong at Stamford Bridge.
I left those fans as I emerged at Earls Court just as the Richmond service I required was pulling out of the station from the platform opposite me. The annoyance of missing this train by seconds was compounded by the fact that Richmond services were only running every 10 minutes. That wait for the next Richmond service was the most frustrating moment of my season since the Sheffield train delays on my way to Hillsborough.
Thankfully my journey got a lot easier once I emerged into the blazing sunlight at Gunnersbury. Just a turn to the left and then straight on till the stadium hoves into view on your right. Google Maps had this slated to take 17 minutes but it only took me 12 minutes despite stopping to grab a drink on the way.
I turned right into Lionel South Road to find the atmosphere rather too chilled for my liking. There seemed to be just an expectation of an easy win pervading the home fans and this was only increased by the fact that the Leeds fans had no faith in getting what they needed from the game. The fans that had travelled down from Yorkshire were heading the other way to me in order to find their turnstiles chanting “We’re going down, we’re going down and next season you will be too”. Whilst I was certain they were right about the part I badly hoped they will be proved wrong on the second part by the end of next season.
Making my way down the Road towards my turnstile I spotted Ethan Pinnock standing near the players entrance taking pictures with young fans and their families. Pinnock may be injured and unable to do his part on the pitch but it’s great to see him still playing his part in boosting the morale of the fans. It is very rare to see players interacting with fans like this and according to the elder gentleman nearby, that I saw sitting on the barrier and stopped to talk too, he had been doing so for the previous 20 minutes without so much as pulling a face. That’s awesome from Ethan Pinnock and I can’t wait to see him back on the pitch with his teammates next season.
There was still one final match of the season for the rest of the Bees to get through first though so I made my way through the crowds to my turnstile. Despite a last minute problem with my e-ticket I was able to get inside thanks to some super-helpful stewards.
Before heading to my seat though I stopped to take in the view on the concourse screens and the huge banner at the bottom of each which was scrolling through the starting 11’s and substitutes bench for both teams. I was able to get every single one of them recorded on the back of my programme before making my way to my seat, as the teams were being announced over the tannoy by the brilliant Peter Gilham.
This programme note-taking saw the return of a lovely tradition for me, the player missing from the programme squad list that is in the matchday squad. Today’s player in question was on the Leeds bench and his name is Archie Gray, a 16 year old forward with the squad number 63. The fact that he was not included in the opposition roll call section inside the programme either gave me the sense that he had yet to make his debut for the club. As such I was intrigued by the possibility of him making a very late cameo in the match and scoring a piledriver from 35 yards that secured Leeds’s survival. Though not as much as I was by the possibility of ex-Leeds man Pontus Jansson scoring a last minute header to rob his old team of the result they needed.
I doubt that much of this was going through the minds of the Leeds die-hards that had made the trip to London without any expectation of seeing their team survive. Despite this lack of expectation there was no lack of hope in the party atmosphere they created before kick-off. A huge wall of noise blasted into the visiting players as they made their way over to their fans at the end of their warm-up and at one point I spotted 4 beachballs being thrown around simultaneously by the fans as they were determined to enjoy their day out.
There were also chants of “Marcelo Bielsa” before kick-off in support of the work down by their deposed ex-boss to return them to the Premier League. Whether he would have kept them up will never be known, but now it came down to the players on the day and the efforts of new boss Jesse Marsch to accomplish that goal.
An eerie silence descended over the ground as the teams emerged, Brentford in their Red and White home strip whilst Leeds plumped for a tasteful Lilac number for this final day clash (except for Meslier who had gone full fluorescent carrot), but the atmosphere ramped up again in the away end before the match got underway moments later.
Within 10 seconds of kick-off all the away fans nightmares came inches away from coming true as it really should have been 1-0 to Brentford. Leeds dithered on it in midfield and Toney snuck in to grab the ball off them then drove towards the by-line. His cut back was blocked behind and Eriksen slapped the ball up to Wissa on the penalty spot. Before Wissa could nod it home though there was a wild Leeds head that popped up to steal it off his head and turn it behind for what should have been a corner. The ref’s view is the only one that counts though and he decided to award the visitors a goal kick.
Leeds used the momentum of this let-off to put together a little spell of possession that ended with a throw-in finding it’s way to Sam Greenwood on the edge of the area. He started a theme for the visitors, that would continue throughout the vast majority of the game, by sending the ball to Mars with the speed of Apollo 11. It just kept rising till it passed the goal higher than even 3 London route masters piled on top of one another could reach.
Launching that ball like a rocket to Mars seemed to unsettle the visitors and Meslier in particular as he came inches away from gifting the hosts the lead. Rico Henry took a throw in from 18 yards out on the left touchline that looped towards goal slowly and looked simple for the keeper to collect. Meslier looked to have it safely in his gloves for a split-second before the ball squirmed free and came to rest inches wide of the left post and halfway across the white line. A huge let-off for Leeds that keeps their hopes of survival alive.
There was a lot of end-to-end play early in the match but the goals were threatened less than a Killer Whale is by Plankton. Leeds looked to change that in the 11th minute as some intricate interplay on the left saw them advance to get in-line with the 6 yard box. The resultant cross was begging for a finish that would never come as the Lilac boys in the centre failed to gamble on their teammates getting to crossing level. As such they were all resting near the penalty spot when they needed to be 6 yards further forward.
A minute later it was the hosts time to miss the opportunity for a tap-in. A raking free-kick from Eriksen near the right touchline flew out to Wissa no-more than 3 yards out at the back post. All Wissa needed to do was stretch and it would have been a simple tap-in from point blank range for him, but no stretch was forthcoming and the toenail connection that Wissa did get was only enough to direct the ball into the side netting.
The 15th minute threw up an infuriating moment for the home fans. Brentford were in the middle of a promising break with Wissa and Toney at the heart of it when Toney was pulled to the ground by Kalvin Phillips. Everyone in the stand around me thought the ref was bound to give a free kick to the Bees and were shocked into an aghast silence when the ref gave the decision to the visitors. The disbelief was palpable.
Leeds started to control the game after this decision went their way and created their first decent chance of the match in the 17th minute as Greenwood was released into a corridor of space in the right channel. He advanced into the area but Jansson got across just in time to put him under pressure and Greenwood was unable to aim his effort properly. His shot went fizzing like a thunderbolt towards goal and skimming over the top of the crossbar on its way behind.
A minute later a huge cheer erupted in the away end which I assumed meant that Newcastle had taken the lead at Turf Moor. This was followed by an ever louder cheer 120 seconds later, which I took to be a second goal for the Magpies and Leeds fan enjoying the knowledge that even without a goal in this one they would now be staying up. On looking at the scores on the concourse screens at half-time it appears that the first cheer was for the award of the penalty that was slotted away by Callum Wilson and the second cheer was the one for the ball hitting the back of the Turf Moor net.
Between those two huge cheers Leeds looked to have another reason to celebrate as they had the ball in the Brentford net. A serious of mazy passes on the left hand side pushed the ball inexorably towards the Bees goal and when the ball was snuck through the gap between Raya and his near post by Joe Gelhardt. The visiting fans erupted into unbridled Euphoria but this outpouring of joy was cut short by VAR. After checks at Stockley Park the score was returned to 0-0 and the Leeds fans were momentarily brought crushing down to earth as the goal was ruled out for Gelhardt edging into an offside position before slotting the ball home.
The Newcastle goal at Turf Moor perked up the Leeds fan once again and this translated to their play on the pitch as the pinned Brentford back into their box and piled on the pressure to find the breakthrough. That they failed to do so for a little while yet was more down to their own lack of attacking creativity than any kind of excellent defending by the hosts. Brentford looked to be lacking any ideas of how to get back into the match. They were not just on the beach, they were working on getting burnt.
Jansson took this relaxed attitude to the max in the 25th minute though as he sat down on the grass to catch his breath. To be fair to him though he had taken a ball to the stomach a couple of minutes earlier though and was perhaps still feeling the effects of that impact. Leeds took advantage of this dominance of the match to continue their tradition of firing the ball into outer space from the edge of the box. This time it was Junior Firpo taking his turn at the moon-shot.
This appeared to shake Brentford from their revelry as they finally got on the attack in the 29th minute, breaking upfield from the goal kick that Firpo’s moon-shot granted them. Wissa flicked it forward for Mbeumo to chase but the Leeds defence were quick to sense the danger and got to the ball first to clear up. Mbeumo was too physical in his efforts to recover the ball for the ref’s liking though and Leeds were able to clear the ball far upfield from the resulting free kick.
Brentford were back on the attack within 60 seconds though as Rico and Wissa combined to create an opening on the left. All the opening led too though was a throw-in 18 yards out on the left touchline that Mads Bech launched into the box and onto the head of Ivan Toney. The Bees talisman is normally as deadly as a cyanide injection from inside the area but all he could manage this time was to help the ball on it’s journey across to the far side of the pitch.
The hosts finally managed to put together a period of possession as the half moved into it’s final third. However, the next chance of note wasn’t created until the 34th minute and even then the hosts contrived to take the threat out of it. Mbeumo was fed the ball by Wissa and with the freedom of Hounslow to pick his spot he rolled it at the speed of an arthritic slug into Meslier’s grateful waiting arms. The slightest hint of power or curl on the shot would have caused problems for the Leeds goalkeeper, but it was not to be.
Brentford were finally in the mood to play though and peppered the visitors goalmouth for the next 3 minutes. First Toney ghosted his way past multiple defenders to reach the by-line before chipping a cut back in the direction of Wissa at the back post. Wissa knocked it towards goal, but it was always rising and Meslier made sure it went over the top by leaping like a salmon to fingertip it in the necessary direction. Then Eriksen let fly with a pile-driver that was deflected agonisingly wide of the post on it’s way behind.
The visitors were back on the attack 7 minutes before half-time though and the visiting fans felt they should have been given a penalty when the ball cannoned into the hand of Mads Bech in the middle of the Bees box. Whether their view made it look like the ball had actually struck the hand or their appeals were born out of desperation for a goal, with the fear of a Burnley goal dropping them back into the relegation zone front and centre of their minds, I just don’t know but the ball hit the Bees defender in the middle of his stomach. There is no universe in existence where being hit in the stomach counts as a handball and the away fans appeals were rightly turned down. None of the Leeds players appealed.
Whilst the away fans appealed in vain I took the opportunity to check the scores from around the grounds. This is where I saw that Newcastle were just 1 goal to the good at Turf Moor and whilst Leeds were safe as things stood it would only take a goal from the hosts here or there to flip that situation on it’s head.
Brentford came close to grabbing that all-important goal in this one as they came inches away from the opener in the 43rd minute when Jensen intercepts the ball 20 yards out and fed Mbeumo down the right. His cross-cum-shot drifted a little off target though and looked to be heading Toney’s way for a simple tap-in at the far post but, as with Wissa earlier, he was unable to stretch quite far enough to direct the ball home and it floated behind for a goal kick.
My first thought when the fourth-official raised his board to indicate that there were to be 2 minutes of added-time tacked on to the end of the half was ‘why subject us to any more of this?’. This was to prove prophetic as the only entertainment on offer in the added-time was another moon-shot from the edge of the box. Vitaly Janelt of Brentford was the one trying his luck this time though and, if nothing else, it was a change of pace for the hosts to be trying their luck with this tactic.
I took the time during the break to go and see my family, season-ticket holders near the halfway line, to discuss our perspectives on the first half’s play. On the way down to them I was waylaid by a fellow Bees fan who recognised me from the throngs that had visited Goodison Park last weekend. I had a lovely chat with this fan before continuing on to see my family, but it was not the first time I was recognised on this day. Another Bees fan had recognised me on my walk between Pinnock and my turnstile pre-match and whilst it’s lovely to be recognised it was also a little disconcerting as I am a very private person and being recognised is not normally a factor of life for me.
Anyway, tangent over and back to the match in question. After a quick discussion with the members of my family that I could locate I headed back onto the concourse and took a butchers at the screens to see how the many questions in the air heading into the final day were being answered.
The relegation battle was going Leeds way as Burnley were trailing 1-0 to Newcastle at half-time. Further up the league table it was the Hammers who were ahead in their battle against Man U for Europa League qualification. They were winning on the South Coast whilst the Red Devils were losing in South London and if that state of affairs remained the same at the final David Moyes men would have a chance to go one better than they managed this season in that competition.
The Champions League showdown between the North London teams was panning out just as expected, with Spurs waltzing to victory over basement dwellers Norwich and making Arsenal’s 2-0 lead over awful travellers Everton meaningless in the greater scheme of things.
The title race was turning out to be far more dramatic though as Stevie G was doing his part of the job by inspiring his Villa team to a 1-0 lead at half-time at the Etihad. Liverpool weren’t upholding their end of the deal though as despite scoring themselves that goal had only drawn them level at half-time and obliterated the lead Wolves had established within 3 minutes at Anfield.
I would be keeping a weather eye on all the developments in the North West as the second halves progressed at Turf Moor, Anfield and the Etihad, but turned my attentions back to the action in West London as Leeds beat their hosts back onto the pitch for the second kick-off. Both managers decided to keep their powder dry at half-time and as things got underway for the second half all I was hoping for was for the hosts to look up for it in this half in a way they just hadn’t during their lacklustre first 45.
The signs were excellent in the first minute of the half as the Bees swarmed forward at pace before Eriksen laid it on a plate for an un-marked Mbeumo in the centre of the area. All that was needed was the simplest of finishes either side of Meslier and the hosts would have the lead. So of course Mbeumo tapped it into the keeper’s arms. The groans that permeated the stand around me was biblical.
In the 51st minute and with a load more zip in Brentford’s play since half-time, Mbeumo had another chance to give the hosts the lead. Once again he was found in space by Eriksen but on the right this time. Instead of slotting the ball through to Toney, in acres and acres of space in the centre of the box, he chose instead to send the ball slithering down the right channel instead where Meslier was able to collect it at a saunter. The anger around me that was directed towards Mbeumo for those incidents was visceral, but for me the main emotion was frustration because Mbeumo is such a talented finisher and right now he just wasn’t doing himself any type of justice.
Leeds had struggled to create anything of note during the first 9 minutes of the second half but they were about to be given a gift of gargantuan proportions by the hosts keeper, David Raya. It came from Leeds first decent foray into the Bees half since the restart and when the ball was fed through to Rodrigo, Raya came rushing out to close him down.
He got the ball at this point but his pass out didn’t make a teammate. Instead it went straight to the feet of Raphinha who advanced towards goal. In attempting to make up for this schoolboy error Raya crashed into Raphinha and gave away the clearest penalty I have seen on a football pitch. He was lucky to have defenders nearby that could conceivably have got round to cover in the ref’s approximation. This was the only thing that helped him avoid the straight red card that the away fans were baying for.
Raphinha picked himself up off the turf to fire the ball down the centre of the goal, as though fired from a cannon, whilst Raya dived helplessly away to his left. Before the ball had even crashed into the back of the net the away end exploded into a wall of noise and yellow flares that blocked out the view of the away fans from the rest of the world.
By the time that sea of yellow floated off into the ether and the away fans had re-entered the viewable universe, Thomas Frank had already dipped into his bench resources to try and help his team bounce back from the body blow of going behind. Mr Frank decided that attack was the best form of defence for the final 32 minutes of the match as he removed defensive midfielder Mathias Jensen from the action and replaced him with the mercurial creative force of Josh DaSilva.
The change did not have an immediate impact on play as Jack Harrison drove down the left wing. Janelt followed his keeper’s example by jumping in recklessly and giving away a needless free-kick. The free-kick was easily cleared to the edge of the box but it was slapped straight back toward goal through a forest of legs in the 6 yard box. Thankfully for me and my fellow home fans Raya was equal to this effort though.
This save did not stop the cheers erupting once again in the Leeds end. It took me 10 seconds to work out why they were cheering a failed shot from there own team and then it hit me. Newcastle United must have scored a 2nd goal at Turf Moor and sure enough when I checked my phone I saw that Wilson had his second of the match in Lancashire. Now the Leeds fans knew that converting their 1-0 here into a win will keep them up unless Burnley score 2 in half an hour having not scored in the first hour of play. That or Brentford score 2 here and at this point that looked about as likely as humanity colonising Neptune in the next 3 weeks.
To try and make that colonisation a reality Thomas Frank dipped back into his bench resources again with 25 minutes left. This substitution made no sense at all though as he removed one of the best players of an incredible Bees season, in taking off Rico Henry. To bring Sergi Canos on seemed to be a great idea at the time as it was a simple straight swap and Canos is brilliant on his day. What I can’t understand though is taking off Rico, having another effective if a little quiet match, instead of Mbeumo whose shooting boots had been left on his bed in the pre-match hotel.
As the match entered its final 20 minutes Thomas Frank took another dip in his bench wallet for further resources to tip the scales of the match back into the Bees favour. Mr Frank had decided to go full send for the conclusion to the match, taking off central defender Mads Bech and bringing on attacking midfielder Shandon Baptiste in his place.
Jess Marsch responded to this third and final Bees substitution with one of his own. Marsch decided to remove Joe Gelhardt from the pitch for the final 19 minutes of the match and send on Pascal Struijk to help his team see out the rest of the match and secure their status in the league for next season.
The hosts change seemed to be the most effective in the following 10 minutes as they pinned Leeds back into their own half and barely allowed the visitors 20 yards away from their own goal-line. As for what Brentford’s formation has now become, I will await ideas for how to describe it on the back of a postcard. I could not fathom out what it supposed to be at this point.
This lack of determinable formation came into full focus just 2 minutes after the changes as DaSilva found a pocket of space on the right to whip a tempting cross into the box, but no-one was there in a red and white shirt to tap it home. Brentford now had 7 attacking players on the pitch now, including DaSilva, so why were none of them in the box to get the simplest tap-in of their career?
I took time to ponder this whilst double checking the score news from the North-West. This check gave me a little hope for an end to the final day that would have the world on tenterhooks. Not only had Burnley pulled a goal back at Turf Moor, meaning just one more goal for them and one for the Bees would ruin Leeds day, but Villa had also doubled their lead at the Etihad. Coutinho had put the villains 2-0 to the good so Liverpool were in the place of only needing a single goal to keep their quadruple hopes alive.
This sense of optimism was punctured with a javelin just 30 seconds later as Kristoffer Ajer dropped to the turf after a collision with Kalvin Phillips. Physios went across to treat Ajer as Phillips jumped to his feet and it soon became clear that Ajer was not in a good place. Sure enough Ajer was unable to continue and headed straight down the tunnel once the physios had helped him to his feet. Having already made all of their changes this awful turn of bad luck left Brentford with the unenviable task of seeing out the final 15 minutes of the match with 10 men and already losing 1-0.
Within minutes of this awful event for the hosts came one of far more glorious proportions. From nowhere Brentford were level. The Bees were down to 10 men, but out of nothing they managed to draw themselves back into the match. Mbeumo advanced on the right and when he made the wrong choice of pass the ball bounced off the Leeds defender he had been aiming for and fell to the feet of Wissa. He stood the ball up to the back post where Canos had engineered for himself the freedom of the 8 yard line to nod the ball back across goal and sneak it into the net by the right hand post.
My joy at this unexpectedly glorious turn of events knew no bounds to the point that I completed missed the return of the Bees bad luck in the aftermath of the leveller. All I knew at this point was that Canos had scored the equaliser for Brentford with just 13 minutes left of the match and at a time when no-one expected it.
It took me a full 8 minutes before I noticed that something had changed on the pitch for the hosts and then only due to a substitution that Leeds made. The visitors made the change of taking off Sam Greenwood and bringing on Mateusz Klich in his place, but this was not what caught my eye at this point.
In the aftermath of every substitution I do a quick scan of the pitch to double check that the numbers that come up on the fourth official’s board correspond to the players that have changed places with each other. In the process of doing this scan I realised that I had only been able to count 9 players on the pitch for Brentford. I double, triple and quadruple checked my count before I could be definitively sure that Brentford were indeed down to just 9 players for at least the final 5 minutes. I was so perplexed by this development that I asked the fans around me to double check my maths. It was only when they confirmed that Brentford were indeed down to 9 that I worked out who the difference was.
Canos was no longer on the pitch and neither I nor those who double checked the numbers for me had any idea why. The rumour that I collected from other fans who had been further down the stands, on my way to the bus stop after the match, was that Canos had received 2 yellow cards within about 60 seconds of each other. It appeared that Canos had been given the first yellow for taking his shirt off as part of his goal celebration, then his second just a minute later for steaming into a tackle on the far touchline.
Whatever the truth of how Canos collected his red card the fact remained that Brentford would now have to finish the match with just 9 players on the pitch.
I also took the chance to check the scores around the grounds as the season entered it’s final 5 minutes and saw that City had staged the most inconceivable of comebacks to lead Villa 3-2 at the Etihad to set themselves on the path to their 4th title in the past 5 Premier League seasons. Given my Liverpool leanings this was the last news I wanted to hear at this point.
Back in west London the game had ticked into the final 5 minutes with Brentford now 2 players lighter than their opponents and just trying to hold on till half-time with the 1-1 scoreline still intact. Leeds were pushing for the winner that would guard their survival against a last minute equaliser from the hosts at Turf Moor.
The visitors came close to that winner in the penultimate minute of the 90 as Harrison broke through the Bees defensive lines and into the box. He laid the ball off to the supporting Rodrigo who guided the ball mere inches over the bar. The expectation rose to neurotic levels in the away end as Rodrigo let the shot fly only to come crashing down like an exploded space shuttle. As a home fan this was glorious to experience, but things were about to take a turn to the dark side for me and all other home fans.
The fourth official somehow managed to scrape together 5 minutes of added time at the end of the match and I’m still trying to work out how they found so much of it. Leeds used this time far more productively than the hosts. Harrison was once again at the heart of things for the visitors, advancing to the edge of the box and launching a shot high over the bar. It looked to me like a clear goal kick but the ref took a different view of things and gave Leeds a corner instead.
I still don’t understand how that could possibly have been a corner, but Leeds won’t care why they got it as it was from this set piece that they scored the winner. The ball flew out to the edge of the box and all I saw of it then was that it turned on a dime and smashed into the back of the net. I had no idea who had scored it at this point and the wild celebrations from the players, all zooming over to the away end at light speed to celebrate with their delirious fans, was no more enlightening.
The scenes in the away end were incredible, with yellow flares greeting the entire Leeds 11 as they sprinted to the corner containing their fans. Meslier sprinted the length of the pitch to join in with the party and both Gelhardt and Greenwood road-runnered it round from the dugouts to join in too. The visions of joy etched on the faces of those who had made the long journey down from Yorkshire was infuriating to me having just seen my team lose a point to a set-piece that I was certain should never have been given. Of course I understood why the away fans were descending into bedlam, their team had just secured the win that ensured that no matter what Burnley did now they were still staying up, but I can’t deny it was really testing my patience to watch their party unfold.
The goal hit the back of the net within 60 seconds of the start of the added 5 minutes it was also the last act of the game. The ref blew for full-time as soon as the Bees had kicked off again and the party kicked off again in the away end. Half an hour later the party was still going and not just in the away end as it quickly became clear that there were infiltrators in the home end. The stewards and security people were so slow to respond to the gloating fans in the wrong end, only stepping in as things began to boil over between the infiltrators and a couple of irate home fans who hadn’t been able to get tickets for family members to join them for this game.
The true home fans in the home ends where asked over the tannoy to remain in their seats as the team will be out once the Leeds players have left the pitch for a lap on honour in recognition of a successful season. With that announcement at the back of my mind I just wanted the Leeds players and fans gone. Yes they’d just pulled off an incredible great escape with a final second winner that secured their safety and in their place I’d want to celebrate for the next 3 days, I wasn’t in their place and I just wanted them out of my stadium now.
Once the away end was finally cleared out the Bees players emerged from the tunnel for their lap of honour but with the performance they had put in today the home stands were a little more swiss cheese than they otherwise ought to have been. It was still a great feeling to be able to applaud the first Brentford team to successfully maintain their Top Division status in more than three-quarters of a century.
I didn’t get leave the stadium until 6:24pm when the game had finished at 5:45pm and to stay that long after the final whistle was crazy for me but also a fitting way to bring to a close a season that I have truly enjoyed. Looking back on the season I have seen some incredible matches, the 3-3 draw against Liverpool and 4-1 win at Stamford Bridge being stand-outs for me. I have also seen some awful bore-fests but those have been on offer more in my travels to new grounds around the country.
Brentford have had an incredible season and I am looking forward to seeing how they manage to avoid the second season syndrome. The biggest hope I have for the Bees summer business is that they hold onto the services of Christian Eriksen and add to their options up-front.
The new season starts a week earlier than last season, in just 11 weeks time, but for me that is currently far too far away to expunge the memory of this awful end to the 2021/22 season. So this blog will be keeping going with the Women’s Euros in July. Between now and then I will be blogging about any cool developments in the football world that pique my interest. See you for those soon.
The Football tourist 