Today comes our biggest challenge of the season, so to boost the confidence and destroy the nerves here’s a blog about our last minute victory at the Etihad 2 seasons ago. (https://the-football-tourist.com/2022/11/16/pure-insanity-at-the-etihad/)
If that isn’t enough then just cast your mind back to our last match before the international break as we swept Southampton off the park for 89 minutes, dominating a Premier League game like I’ve never seen us do before. The final score, 3-1, was so harsh on the buzzing, brilliant Bees especially as the consolation arrived in the 95th minute, when a clean sheet looked certain.
From the first minute till the last we hunted down the Saints in packs and dismembered them piece by piece.
Mads Roerslev and Mikkel Damsgaard have both come in for criticism from me over the past few seasons, but both were brilliant.
Roerslev roamed his wing, snuffing out any attacks the visitors attempted to spring down that side in their crib.
As for Damsgaard, he led from the front with a masterclass in pressing that brought the rest of the team with him. It was his hunting that wrestled the ball loose for our first and last goals.
That it took till the 43rd minute for us to open our account was mostly due to the last pass missing it’s mark far too often, plus a conversion from Yoane Wissa in the 23rd minute that has still yet to land back on earth.
We were lucky not to be behind by the time we finally took the lead though as Southampton’s first break of the match 3 minutes earlier would have ended in extasy for the travelling fans if not for the greatest goal-saving sliding tackle I have ever witnessed, from the one man brick wall that is Ethan Pinnock.
When the opener came it was the glorious pressing of Damsgaard that made it happen.
Nicking the ball off Taylor Harwood-Bellis on the edge of the box he fed Kevin Shade to unleash a cannon ball of a shot that had the goal frame shaking like a leaf. The ball bounced out to the feet of Mbuemo who made no mistake with the rebound, sparking joyous scenes around the ground and choking the voice out of me for the next 10 mins from cheering so much.
The best chance of the half would go to Adam Armstrong, of the south coasters, in the final minute of the 45, who somehow contrived to launch the ball over the bar from 4 yards out when found unmarked in the centre of the goal mouth.
That miss, reminiscent of Yakubu’s for Nigeria at the 2010 World Cup, was enough to see him hooked off at halftime as Russell Martin looked to a double substitution to salvage hope for his floundering seasiders.
His embarrassment was covered somewhat when his teammate Ben Brereton-Diaz shanked a shot so badly wide that you could fit the length of Chile, north to south, widthways between the post and the ball.
Having dominated the first half the hosts went after their visitors with renewed vigour, nearly doubling their lead in the first minute as all Mathias Jensen’s ball needed as it scythed across the 6 yards box was a feather touch to divert it home. Alas, it got none.
Even a double half-time save couldn’t save the sinking Saints from their fate as the swarming Bees destroyed them.
Sure it took 20 minutes for Brentford to double their lead but when Mbuemo completed his brace by slotting home after more incredible pressing play from the irrepressible Damsgaard, there was no way back for the visitors.
Four minutes later the final nail was hammered into their coffin by Wissa, latching onto one of Mathias Jensen’s trademark long throws to tap it over the line from inches out.
Finally, we get to see how dangerous that throw can be and we also got to see what Thomas Frank has always seen in Damsgaard. Mikkel terrorised the opposition back line
Saints hadn’t looked like breaking their duck in front of goal this season, despite a trio of tap-in chances in this half alone. Then they scored the ultimate consolation goal…
Yukinari Sugawara smashed one home with the outside of his right boot from just inside the box as the one-man wall finally tumbled to the turf with exhaustion.
No denying the brilliance of the finish and the brilliance of the away fans ‘ We’ve scored a goal ‘ chant, but the goal would not have happened if the players had not already run themselves into the ground with the most committed performance I’ve seen from a team in a decade and a half of following football nationwide.
We will need to reach similar levels to get a result today, but we have had the international break to recover and shown ourselves the levels we are capable of.
We sit 6th before kick-off, our opponents have only managed one clean sheet this season (which was away on opening day) and their focus might be wandering forward to their next two games, giving us the chance to catch them with their pants down.
The only bad news from the match for the rampant hosts was that Kristoffer Ajer had to be taken off due to injury 5 minutes before the goal. Having seen the team ravaged by injuries last season, let’s all cross our fingers to see him back on the grass soon.
For today though we have a new challenge to focus on, see you at the Etihad in a couple hours time.
COME ON BRENTFORD, THE RED AND WHITE ARMY STANDS BEHIND YOU
The Football tourist 