Brentford: 4th Tier At The Top

Mamma Mia, here we go again. Another season of ups and down, ecstasy and heartbreak gets underway.

Despite all the doubters along the way, including myself last season (sorry), Brentford begun their 4th successive season in the top flight today and our visitors for this one were another set of Londoners.

Having opened our Premier League account with a gorgeous 2-0 victory over Arsenal and last season with a 2-2 draw against their North London rivals, with a 2-2 draw at the King Power in-between, this season it was the turn of the Kings of South London to be hit for a Brentford brace.

Crystal Palace fans who made the long trip to the other side of the capital will have felt frustrated on their pointless journey back as not only were Oliver Glasner’s Eagles better than the Bees for much of the match. They had the ball in the next 3 times too, just a shame only one counted.

Always nice to see my beloved Bees start the season by securing 3 points and launching ourselves to 6th place, the edge of Europe…

Palace, in their away kit reminiscent of the bright yellow highlighters from high school, got the season underway at the Gtech and 40 seconds later Kevin Shade was slashing a shot across the face of goal for the hosts.

Bees failed to capitalise on this fast start as they dropped deeper and deeper for the next 20 minutes inviting pressure and looking to catch the Eagles napping on the break.

The problem with that approach was that it allowed them space in midfield to play and they were making excellent use of the space to mount charge after charge at our back line.

Eberechi Eze was particularly adept at this and if his final ball had been better on several occasions the visitors could have had an early lead. His most mercurial runs were into the left wing void that opened up when Mads Roerslev had to tuck in to cover.

Our defensive frailties had let us down in the early games last season and, after conceding 4 against Wolfsburg in pre-season it looked like they might rear their ugly heads once more.

In a backs to the wall effort we kept our sheet clean, even managing to catch them on one swift break with Yoane Wissa, till he tried to beat 5 players single handed with Mathias Jensen in acres of space to his left.

In the wake of that attack Wissa picked up the first yellow 20 minutes in to the host’s season thanks to a shoulder barge 20 yards out. Nothing came of the resultant free-kick, but they had the ball in the net from one just 6 minutes later.

Adam Wharton, of England’s Euro 2024 subs bench, crumpled to the floor off minimal contact and as he shaped up to take the free-kick it appeared to all the world, Mark Flekken included, that the ball would be floated into the box to be met by a driven header… Palace had other ideas.

Eze sauntered over to the ball and hit it first time round the one man wall and past Flekken statuesque between the stick. Some early season sluggishness from the hosts punished by the visitors only for the ref to give us the lifeline of a free-kick for a foul amongst the scrum of players waiting for the cross.

That huge let-off was pounced upon by the relieved hosts in the best possible manner, they were 1-0 up less than a minute later.

Bryan Mbuemo finished off a flowing solo move, twisting this way and that to throw his marker to the floor creating just a yard of space for him to turn and flash the ball into the bottom left corner.

Against the run of play Brentford led and they almost had a 2-minute brace as Nathan Collins slid a shot through a forest of legs from the left channel only to see it blocked on the line.

Despite near-monopolising possession for the rest of the half, it was the hosts who came within a cat’s whisker of doubling their lead just before half-time.

Shade, brought in last summer but injured for most of the season, announced his return to the team with a sumptuous effort just before half-time, curling the ball beautifully round his marker, out of Dean Henderson’s reach and an inch wide of the post.

That was the last meaningful action of the half, with the last 5 minutes ambling along, and the hosts sprinted down the tunnel 1-0 up in a game their opponents had bossed.

Glasner shuffled his pack at half-time, replacing Jean-Philippe Mateta with Odsonne Edouard, the man who would draw them level.

It would take Edouard 10 minutes to open his account thanks to an abysmal mix-up in the Bees back-line. Tyrick Mitchell was given far too much time to float a cross to the back post and when it was nodded down into the 6-yard box Edouard reacted quickest to poke it home, despite the attention of 2 defenders. Hopefully that’s one of the softest goals we concede this season.

Edouard thought he had doubled his account minutes later when Eze fed it through to him in the centre for him to stroke home, only for it to be correctly chalked out for offside.

That was the last of the visitors hat-trick of finishes, but Brentford had one more in them.

First though a change of personnel, with Shade withdrawn to deafening applause to be replaced by Keane Lewis-Potter and Mikkel Damsgaard replacing Vitaly Janelt in midfield.

These changes seemed to upset the Eagles as within 2 minutes it was the Bees soaring to victory. Wissa slid in on the line to snaffle the ball home after Henderson’s dive could only shovel the ball into path. It was a gift the Congolese was never likely to pass up and the home stands were sent into the stratosphere.

Defensive substitutions from Thomas Frank helped us withstand the final onslaught of the wounded beasts from south of the Thames.

As the final whistle blew, after 4 nail-biting minutes of added time, a wave of relief flowed round the home stands. The performance may not have been brilliant but what matters early in the season is the result.

Brentford struggled to impose their will on the midfield throughout the game, but when they broke their trademark speed and tenacity shone through, with a little potency sprinkled on top for good measure.

Taking our chances was an issue for much of last season so it’s brilliant to see that, even without Ivan Toney in the squad, that problem seems to have been fixed.

On my way home now I see nothing but good signs for the seasons, after all they do say the best teams find a way to the win when they’re not playing their best football. Today that was us and long may we continue to find that way to win.

Here’s to securing a 5th season in the Premier League and to whatever else this season holds for the Bees of BRENTFORD!!