Brentford’s Travel Sickness

That I have taken so long to write another blog, since my Bobby Charlton memorial, is down to one major reason… the last couple of games I went to were Brentford away games that took the Bees outside of London.

Away from their home city the Bees are nothing short of abysmal. That didn’t stop me following them all outside of their hive twice in 4 days, on the 6th and the 9th of December.

First up was a trip to the south coast and high flying Brighton’s Amex stadium. The Seagulls are soaring at the moment and recently finished top of their Europa League group, but at kick-off they were only 3 points above Brentford.

Combine this with the fact that Bee’s last win outside London came on the south coast and I headed down south with optimism surging through my soul.

It quickly became clear that this may have been foolish though as Brighton dominated play from the first second of the match. They dominated the first 25 minutes so thoroughly that they were caught so cold when the visitors finally broke out of their half that when Vitaly Janelt charged into their box all they could do was hack him down.

From the resultant penalty Bryan Mbuemo sent Jason Steele the wrong way to stroke the ball home and send all of us in the away seats into ecstasy, we had played dreadfully so far but now we were leading, the only question was could this lead last? No….

Within 6 minutes Pascal Gross had pulled the hosts deservedly level with a beautiful finish from the edge of the box. The worst thing about the hosts equaliser was that it was so simple for them. A ball flashed up the left wing left Kaoru Mitoma in a showdown with Mads Roerslev, who he had in his back pocket all game, and when Frank Onyeka came over to help his teammate this left Gross with the freedom of the Amex to ghost into space and fire home without anyone laying a glove on him.

Worse news was to come for the visitors though as their goalscorer and only real attacking threat left in their squad, Bryan Mbuemo, limped off injured before half-time. That he needed the help of 2 physios to leave the pitch was never going to be a good sign and it was later confirmed that he will be out for weeks (yet another name added to the injury list that could reach to the moon and back now).

With Mbuemo now out of action we had even less attacking threat than we previously had the Seagulls were all over us like that crab in finding nemo ‘Mine’. Quite how the hosts didn’t go in ahead at halftime is anyone’s guess, especially with the 7 added minutes to survive.

The relief at making it to half time with scores level was short lived though as it only took seven minutes of the second half for Brighton to find their winner. It came in humiliating fashion for the visitors, no less than they deserved, as Mitoma and Gross combined on the left again to create space for a cross to Jack Hinshelwood to nod in at the back post for the 18 year-old to score his first ever senior goal.

Hinshelwood may never have scored before but you’d never know it as he glided his way into acres of space at the back post to nod home for the winner. There was no Brentford player closer to him than the Isle of Wight.

Having tried to forget the rest of the match I can only go by the voice notes I made to find reasons why we only lost 2-1. It seems to mostly boil down to Brighton’s shooting boots having left the stadium as Brentford showed no signs of mounting any sort of comeback.

Despite this chastening experience I was confident once more as I travelled up to South Yorkshire to follow the Bees once just 3 days later. This time our opponents would be a bottom of the league Sheffield United team that had managed just 5 points so far this season and recently got handed a 5-0 beating by Burnley that pushed them into changing managers.

Turns out sacking Paul Heckingbottom and reverting to Chris Wilder was a brilliant call from the owners as not only did the Blades push Liverpool close in midweek, whilst Brighton were beating the Bees, but they cut us to shreds here too.

The injury list that Mbuemo had been added too already included; Kevin Shade, Nathan Collins, Kristoffer Ajer, Josh DaSilva, Mathias Jensen, Aaron Hickey and Rico Henry. Any of those 7 would walk into our best 11 and with Mbeumo joining them and Ivan Toney still serving his gambling ban it’s fair to say the Bees were down to bare bones. I just wish it hadn’t shown so much.

Sure Sheffield United were benefitting from a new manager boost but we were making them look like Manchester City at their irrepressible best. We barely managed to string 5 passes together all game and without our creative midfield players, our best strikers or our marauding full-backs to pin their wingers back we didn’t cause them a single second of worry all match.

For all the hosts would know they could have been playing against statues and the only shocking thing was how long it took the hosts to score. It was in the 3 added minutes at the end of the first half that James McAtee fired home to give the bottom-feeders the lead they deserved. As with Gross’ equaliser for Brighton he had no-one near him as he gloriously guided the ball past Mark Flekken for what would prove to be the only goal of the game.

I’m not gonna waste more than a sentence on the rest of the United game because the quality was just that bad. The most memorable part of that second half was standing under a gap between two sections of roof as the pouring ran broke through and doused me as I watched my team get crushed, the weather perfectly matched my mood that afternoon.

Brentford’s troubles outside London are well documented, we last won in such a game back in March against a Southampton team headed for relegation. Whilst some of the recent failures can be explained by our injury list and lack of squad depth in certain positions what this does not explain is how often we throw away leads.

We led against Brighton before succumbing to our fate but we also led at Old Trafford this season from the 26th minute until the 93rd, before losing 2-1, and we led 1-0 against a 10-man Nottingham Forest team, before they equalised, we even had a late lead in the league cup 2nd round away at league 2 Newport County, before being pegged back in 2nd half stoppage time.

Whatever the reason for those thrown away points it’s clear that our main problem is our abysmal form outside of our home city, 18 of our 19 points so far this season have been won in London, and until Thomas Frank can find a cure for this debilitating travel sickness we will struggle to push on in the league.

Thankfully for Bee’s fans he has plenty of time to find this cure as Brentford do not leave London again till their trip to Wolves on Saturday 10th February. I have everything crossed that the cure is in full force by then.