1,700 partisan fans in full voice cheering you on having travelled south for hours to support you and you new manager watching on, that would be enough motivation for most players to put in their best performance
Leicester City missed that memo…
Brentford played them off the park from minute 1 to minute 101, there were 11 minutes added time across the halves and everyone of them the travelling fans could have done without.
Whatever rot had set in under Steve Cooper was on full display for the incoming Ruud Van Nistelrooy today. All the way through the team, from the strikers back to the goalkeeper there was a lack of cohesion and a dearth of quality that cut the bottom out of their few forays forward.
Sure they took the lead in the 21st minute with what was, to my memory, their only shot on target all match, but within 3 minutes the scores were equal and a mere 7 minutes after Facundo Buonanotte had given them the lead they were behind. They never looked like scoring again.
In truth, they were only ahead due to some exceedingly profligate finishing by the hosts front 3, but Yoane Wissa and particularly Kevin Shade would soon more than make up for their early waywardness.
Shade got the assist for Wissa’s opener at the end of a slick and speedy attack that got the ball from goal kick to nestling in the net in less than 10 seconds.
Having set up the equaliser Shade took over the scoring duties for the rest of the match. He threw down the gauntlet to the visiting defence and proceeded to rip them apart.
His one-man masterclass in dismantling the opposition opened in the 28th minute and the brace was completed with the final kick of the half, before the visitors trudged down the tunnel to a chorus of boos from the away end.
Shade wasn’t stopping there though completing his hat-trick just before the hour mark and just in time, as the maestro of manoeuvres was removed from the field to rapturous applause in the 70th minute.
That his replacement garnered less applause speaks to the virtuosity of his performance, but I’m sure Igor Thiago would have hoped to be the main event on his home debut having been out injured for the last 3 months.
Unfortunately for him, by the time he was introduced to the fray the flailing foxes had been well and truly eviscerated. His absence from the scoresheet was the only minor blot on a glorious day for the home faithful. whose beloved Bees remain unbeaten this season at their Gtech fortress.
For the travelling faithful it was a bracing reality check after the high of yesterday’s appointment of a new first team Manager.
Whilst for the players being booed down the tunnel after each half, having your fans chant “this is embarrassing” at you 10 minutes from time, then agreeing with the home fans at the final whistle that “We’re f***ing s***” over and over again should serve as a very Ruud awakening for them of just how much they’ll have to improve to stay up.
As for Ruud Van Nistelrooy, watching on from the stands, well at least he now knows the scale of the gargantuan task he now faces. On the plus side though, in the words of a visiting fan on the train after the game ‘at least we can’t get any worse’.
Over to you Ruud.
The Football tourist 