The Football tourist

Wednesday 15th March 2023: Premier League: St. Mary’s: Southampton vs Brentford

As I returned to the city of my university days, for the first time in years I was expecting to see my beloved bees swagger to a simple victory, against a Saints team rooted to the bottom of the Premier League table and seemingly destined for the drop.

The final scoreline, 2-0 to the Bees, will make it look like a simple victory in the record books, but if Saints has a striker capable of slotting simple chances home they could have won 6 or 7-0 with the chances they created.

Just 20 goals in the 27 games they had played before this match tells you everything you need to know.

Lacking A Striker

The hosts took a little while to get going, with Brentford actually managing a couple of early half chances. Though once they realised their visitors were struggling to string more than a couple of passes together in attack they seemed to grow in confidence and began to threaten on the break.

With these early exchanges out of the way and with both teams having felt out the flow of the game it was the hosts who solidified dominance of the ball.

They were unable to turn their possession into chances that troubled David Raya because no-one wanted to make the runs into the box that would see them get on the end of the crosses being fired in, or allow them to be first to any loose balls.

They even passed up a couple of simple tap-ins. First by not having a willing runner ready to meet a sumptuous deep cross from James Ward-Prowse. Then in the 20th minute Mohamed Elyounoussi failed to punish Raya for dithering on the ball in the box.

The Bees’ keeper was given until the rapture to clear his lines when all it would’ve taken was a tiny touch of pressure to dispossess him and secure the simplest finish imaginable from 3 yards out.

Elyounoussi came close to making up for his mistake within 60 seconds, but his shot from 6 yards out was cleared off the line by Ben Mee with Raya prone on the grass.

The Norwegian would let another chance slip through his fingers on the half-hour mark, having been picked out in space at the back post by a perfect slide-rule ball across the box by Kamaldeen Sulemana. Unable to get a telling touch on the ball this profligacy would soon be punished.

Before I talk about how Brentford punished their hosts though there is just time to mention the chances Saints created in the final 10 minutes of the first half.

Carlos Alcaraz fired narrowly over the bar as Saints poured forward to take advantage of a poor pass by Christian Norgaard and that’s it. The hosts had their visitors pinned back into their penalty area but were unable to turn possession and position into chances and goals.

Both teams had lacked a cutting edge in the final third during the first-half. For the Bees this was down to a lack of concerted periods of possession. For the Saints it was down to a lack of guile and being devoid of the confidence to try once the ball reached that area of the pitch.

Divine intervention would have been needed to see the Saints score. Brentford needed no such help though and despite being firmly on the back foot throughout most of the half, they were the team who ended it ahead on the scoresheet.

How It Should Be Done

The visitors took the lead into the break thanks to who else but Ivan Toney, ghosting in at the far post to toe-poke home a corner from mere inches out. That’s the predatory instinct that the hosts had been missing and Brentford would show it just one more time in the match.

Thankfully though this was all they needed as Saints threw themselves at us all half, without causing our defenders a sleepless second, let alone a sleepless night. The ball did find itself at the feet of one or other of the Saint’s strikers many a time throughout the half, but not once did it look likely that they would finish off a chance.

The second Bees’ goal and the final nail in Southampton’s coffin came via the boot of Yoane Wissa in the final of seven minutes of injury time. Gavin Bazuma’s goal-kick was headed back towards him from half-way, then helped further on by Toney.

Wissa took the ball in his stride 40 yards from goal and, with the saint’s defence scattered to the four corners of the city, he advanced to the edge of the box before slipping the ball under Bazuma’s body. Scoring with the last kick of the match

It was the ultimate sucker punch from the visitors having been spent most of the half defending for their lives, but that’s what happens when you refuse to take your chances. Your opponents will be clinical with theirs and leave your home with the full 3 points.

Sinking Feeling

In the months since this game Southampton’s relegation to the Championship has been confirmed and with a game of the season left they are confirmed to finish bottom of the table.

However, even as the final whistle blew on this match I had that sinking feeling when it came to their chances of avoiding the drop.

It was crystal clear that it would take divine intervention to stop the Saints sinking through the Premier League trapdoor.

Just 20 goals scored from 28 games is a pitiful return and with how few chances they had been able to fashion in this match, despite their dominance of possession, I failed to see how they would increase that number at all.

Going into the final day they have scored a league low of 32 goals from 37 games. This is the reason the Saints are going down.

Saturday 20th May 2023: Premier League: Tottenham Hotspur Stadium: Spurs vs Brentford

As the end of the season hooves into view Brentford are in the privileged position of having nothing to worry about.

Fears of succumbing to second season syndrome were banished months ago and our hopes of going on a European tour next season are out of our hands, with both Villa and Spurs to ahead of us in the race.

Today we went to the latter’s home to see if we could close the gap to them down to just a single point. Doing so without Ivan Toney looked difficult but as we had shown in defeating Europa Conference League finalists West Ham United without him last weekend; we are not a one man team.

Flattering To Deceive

Throughout the first half here though it looked as though we may indeed have become a one man team who relied far too much on Ivan to score.

Creating chances wasn’t a problem throughout the half with particular joy coming on the left wing, where Rico Henry and Kevin Shade were able to breeze past their markers whenever the mood took them.

The only thing missing from the Bees first performance in the first half was a touch of quality in the final third.

It was a similar story for the hosts. Their speed on the break, through Heung-Min Son, Dejan Kulusevski and of-course Harry Kane caused the Bees’ defence all kinds of problems all half. This trio created an glut of chances for the hosts to put the game out of sight of their visitors, but thankfully for me they also lacked the guile in the final third to tuck anything away from open play.

Spurs did go down the tunnel at half-time with the lead though thanks to a pearler of a free-kick from just outside the box that sailed off the right boot of Kane that curled beautifully into the top corner of the net.

It was a true Worldie of a freekick that no keeper could ever hope to get near, David Raya threw himself towards the ball but still stood no chance. Kane’s spectacular free-kick aside the first half was devoid of the slightest drop of quality in either attacking third.

The Full Spursy

Spurs had shaded affairs in the first 45 but as anyone who goes up against the Lilywhites knows they’ve never got you beaten until the final whistle. With the deficit sitting at just a single goal and the full second half to work with I was confident Brentford could still get something out of this game.

All we had to do was get an equaliser, then sit back and watch as Spurs fell apart in front of our faces. So it proved to be.

Thomas Frank switching out Frank Onyeka for Mikkel Damsgaard during the break, in a reversion to the 11 that saw off the Hammers last weekend, may have helped what happened next but there is also another explanation.

In the Spur’s dressing room at half time they sat around wondering what was going on, were they really winning a match? ‘That’s not like us at all’ they thought so for the second half they all agreed to revert to type… ‘Full Spursy lads?’ ‘Yeah, The Full Spursy’.

Whether that conversation only occurred in my head or not the hosts certainly went full spursy in the second half, barely laying a glove on their opponents as they proceeded to fall apart and let a certain victory slip through their fingers.

New Bees

After struggling in the final third in the first half the visitors were a completely new team in the second. Having been in the ascendency since the restart and with the hosts wilting in the baking sunshine it took just 5 minutes for parity to be restored.

Bryan Mbuemo was the man who opened the Bees’ scoring account last weekend and he was leading the way here too. Damsgaard collected the ball in acres of room in the Spur’s half then fired forward a defence-splitting pass to Yoane Wissa. He flicked it right to Mbuemo who took it in stride, shifted it onto his left foot and let fly. The ball flew straight and true like an arrow shot from a longbow across the keeper and into the bottom-left corner.

Now we were back on terms everyone seemed to sense what was coming next and sure enough Brentford took the lead just after the hour mark.

Once more it was Mbuemo on hand to finish off a flowing team move. From back-four to back of the net took just 8 seconds. Worked down the right Hickey’s ball down the channel was met by Mbuemo as he steamed in on goal.

This time his first touch set the ball up perfectly for him to stroke home from an acute angle across Fraser Forster once more. As ways to clock up your first ever Premier League brace goes, Mbuemo could’ve done a lot worse.

Bee’s new main man had a golden opportunity to finish off a beautiful hat-trick in the 88th minute. Instead he chose to be incredibly un-selfish and slipped it off to Wissa, who had been granted the freedom of North London, to his right for him to stroke home with his final touch of the match.

Wissa was replaced whilst the away fans were still lost in pure ecstasy and it wasn’t till deep in the 9 added minutes that I realised he was gone, with Josh DaSilva on in his place.

By the time Wissa put the icing on the Brentford cake the home stands were half-empty. Apparently the home fans had no interest in sticking around for the post-match, end of season awards.

Final Day Permutations

Despite how disappointing both the season and today’s result has been for the home fans they are still just a point outside of the European qualification spots. The loss here has taken their fate out of their own hands. Although, given how bad they are at holding onto what they have perhaps their hopes are better resting in other’s hands.

To qualify for Europe next season Spurs must better Aston Villa’s fail to beat Brighton at home.

If both Spurs and Villa fail to win on the final day then today’s win keeps Brentford in with an outside chance of taking that final qualification spot. All they would have to do is beat Manchester City and their superior goal difference will take the bus stop in Hounslow on a European tour.

Unlikely I know, but Bee’s fans can dream. After their incredible comeback today and capping a comeback at the Etihad with a 98th minute winner in the last game before the World Cup, anything is possible….

Tonight Sheffield Wednesday booked their place in the League One playoff final at Wembley Stadium on Monday 29th May 2023.

If you had written a script for how they managed it and submitted it to a movie studio they would have thrown it out without a second though, cause ‘no-one would ever believe it’ but now it’s happened.

Six days ago the Owls lost 4-0 at Peterborough United’s Weston Homes Stadium and to any sane observer it looked like the Posh were now on a straightforward waltz to Wembley, but it appears no-one told the Yorkshireans.

Fired up by such a humiliating score last week the Owls were fired up for revenge and pulled one back from the penalty spot with just 9 minutes of the game gone. Their deficit on aggregate was halved with just 25 minutes gone and this was how it stood at half-time.

After the break the game looked to have settled down and then with 19 minutes of normal time left Wednesday narrowed the gap to just one goal. Wiping that final bit of the deficit out took the Steel City men until the 11th hour.

In the 8th minute of 6 minutes of injury time at the end of the 90 Liam Palmer poked the ball home from within a forest of legs to level the tie and send things into 30 minutes of extra-time.

Everything was going well for Wednesday in the most incredible comeback since Istanbul 2005 and then came the sucker punch, Peterborough scored.

Right on the stroke of half-time in extra time Peterborough went back ahead on aggregate and in the worst way possible for the hosts, an own goal. Lee Gregory was trying to head a Posh free-kick but instead can only nod into his own net.

Wednesday were not down for the count yet and with just 8 minutes of extra time left, punching on the rebound from a blocked shot to toe-poke home to send the most incredible night in South Yorkshire to the nail-biting lottery of a penalty shoot-out.

The decisive penalty was missed by Dan Butler for the visitors, the only miss of the whole shoot-out. So with the Owls final kick of the match it fell to Jack Hunt to write himself into Wednesday history with the winning penalty to cap the greatest comeback in domestic English football history.

From 4-0 down after the first leg, to 4-4 at the end of normal time at the end of the second leg, then to go behind to an own goal in extra time only to equalise again and win on penalties. The biggest deficit previously overturned in a playoff tie was a mere 2 goals, but tonight in the miracle of Hillsborough, Sheffield Wednesday blew four goal deficit out of the water.

You just couldn’t write it…

Tomorrow Sheffield Wednesday will find whether they will be facing Bolton Wanderers or Barnsley, 1-1 on aggregate after their first leg, at Wembley on the final May Bank Holiday of the year.

Come On The OWLS!!!!

Saturday 14th May 2023: Premier League: Gtech Community Stadium: Brentford vs West Ham United

Having beaten AZ Alkmaar 2-1 in the 1st leg of the Europa Conference semi-final less than 72 hours ago Hammer’s fans made the short trip to west London rivals Brentford in extremely high spirits.

They left with their spirits significantly lowered having seen their boys comprehensively beaten by a Brentford team responding in the greatest fashion imaginable to their 1-0 defeat at Anfield on Coronation Day.

As soon as Mathias Jensen started the afternoon’s proceedings it was clear that there was only one team winning today and it wasn’t the Irons. The Bees took just 48 seconds to create their first presentable chance of the afternoon’s torrent; Rico Henry releasing Kevin Shade down the left channel, but he overran the ball and it trickled into Lucasz Fabianski’s grateful grasp.

Brentford should have broken the deadlock twice more within the opening 10 minutes; with first Mikkel Damsgaard flicking a free header wide of the right stick from the centre of the 6 yard box and then Henry choosing to slide the ball laterally across to the penalty spot when he had Shade, Yoane Wissa and Bryan Mbuemo all running clear in the area and screaming for a cross to be flashed across the face. If the cross had been forthcoming it would have provided a simple tap-in for whichever attacker made first contact.

No matter though as Mbuemo would take it upon himself to unleash a right-footed rifle shot across the despairing dive of Fabianski to set the Bee’s on their way to a comfortable victory as the match clock struck 20.

Having taken the lead the Host’s settled in to weather the expected storm of the hammers, but it never came and the game ticked past the half hour mark with a 10 minute passage of play where neither team threatened to add to the scoreline. West Ham were looking especially toothless without their main marksman Michail Antonio, out with a calf issue picked up in the midweek win.

Anyone who took this cessation of hostilities as a sign that all the sting had gone out of the hosts without Ivan Toney in their matchday squad, were soon to be proven sadly and seriously mistaken.

Release The Swarm

I have been attending Brentford matches since the 2014-15 season and cannot recall a more ferocious show of attacking prowess from the Bees as was seen in the final 10 minutes of the first half today. How it yielded just the one paltry goal is anyone’s guess.

Wissa was the first to go agonisingly close to doubling the west Londoner’s lead as his powerful first time shot from the penalty spot in the 34th minute, having been teed up by Aaron Hickey, required Fabianski to spray himself low to get a strong right hand to the ball and pouch it to prevent a certain goal.

Shade was next to try his luck in the 37th minute as he spun on a dime to send the ball careening inches wide of the left post, having shimmied his way clear of his marker to create the yard of space for the shot. He tried to make up for this miss in the 4 minutes added on to the end of the half, but this time his crabbing technique was less successful and eventually he had to lay it off for Hickey to flash just past the right upright.

I have no idea who had any of the shots that went flying towards goal in the melee a long throw from Jensen caused in the 40th minute. The original header flicked towards the far corner of the net came was Shade’s but once Fabianski had blocked this down into the forest of legs chaos ensued. There were at least 3 shots fired in from point blank range but each was blocked on the line by the desperate defence.

After witnessing us fail to score then I started to become convinced that the Hammer’s had constructed a forcefield around their goal. If such a thing had existed, it lasted all of 2 minutes before another Jensen long throw evaporated it. When Ben Mee flicked the ball on at the near post Wissa was the only man alive to the danger in the 6 yard box and he poked it home to double the hosts lead. Cue bedlam in the home stands.

Profligacy Un-Punished

Brentford were extremely unlucky to have opened up just a 2-goal advantage over their visitors from the East of the city at half-time and the only worry I had at the break was whether the Hammers would re-group during the interval and punish their host’s profligacy with a hatful of second half goals. I needn’t have worried.

Even the introduction of Declan Rice and ex-bee Said Benrahma, to rapturous applause from all corners of the ground, on the hour mark did little to aid the visitor’s cause. Despite a mini revival over the next 5 minutes that save David Raya make his first save of the match, the visitors never truly looked likely to force their way back into the match.

The Hammer’s did have the ball in the net in the 67th minute only for a VAR check to rule it out for a handball by Divin Mubama, an 18 year-old striker introduced to the fray by Moyes alongside Rice and Benrahma.

The disallowed goal was the high point of a dismal afternoon for a Hammer’s team being brought crashing down to earth by their high flying neighbours.

Neighbours who failed to add to their goal tally despite a heaping helping of presentable chances falling their way throughout the second half. Mee and Mbuemo both missed the target with free headers from within the box.

Damsgaard and Frank Onyeka were amongst the slew of home players to fail to convert decent opportunites, with the former somehow contriving to hoof the ball over the bar from a couple of yards out just after the hour mark.

The Irons were unable to pounce on these missed chances to steal the point they needed from the match to mathematically secure their safety; whilst 3 points for the hosts ensures that they will finish the season in the top 10. Second season syndrome be damned.

In his post match interviews Brentford head coach Thomas Frank described the result as “The most convincing 2-0 win I have seen in a long, long time”. Having been in the stands today I can confirm he is right. It could easily have been 6 or 7-0.

Saturday 6th May 2023: Premier League: Anfield: Liverpool vs Brentford

As a football mad young boy there was nothing higher on my Christmas wish list that going to Anfield. On the King Charles III was coronated that dream came true… and became a nightmare.

The home fans showed their Jekyll and Hyde nature before the match, going from showing all other football fans up by lining up 13 rows deep to welcome the home coaches 2 hours before kick-off to dousing themselves in the shame of drowning out the National Anthem under wave after wave of boos.

Hearing 50,000 people joined together in a common cause can also be spine-tingling and it became so here as the boos broke on the beach of “You’ll Never Walk Alone”. Even from my perch in the away end I could not help letting a few lines of my childhood anthem slip through my lips.

Welcome Mr Hyde

As the game got underway it fell on the home player’s shoulders to choose which side of their fans nature they would indulge. It became abundantly clear long before Virgil Van Dijk picked up the first yellow of the match after just 5 minutes. Fabinho was extremely lucky not to join him minutes later after wrestling Bryan Mbuemo to the ground, as the Bee’s striker looked to break at speed.

The defensive midfielder would eventually end up in the book 2 minutes before the break for hacking Ivan Toney’s legs out from underneath him on the edge of the penalty area.

They had chosen the Hyde side of football and took their tactical cues for this match from the Netherland’s team of the 2010 World Cup. An agricultural style of football pervaded their play as they looked to weather an early swarm of Bees.

Weathering swarms and storms has become second nature to Liverpool as they have staggered their way through a topsy-turvy season though and once this particular storm had been beaten back the hosts took the lead in trademark ‘Mr Hyde’ style.

Van Dijk was once again at the centre of things, shoving his marker to the ground before nodding a chipped ball to the back post into the middle of the 6 yard box for Salah to shovel home from barely a yard out. There was a long break after the ball hit the net for a check, during which every player positioned themselves ready for a Brentford free-kick, before the goal was given.

Not the classiest way for Salah to clock up his hundredth goal at Anfield, moving level with Steven Gerrard for all time Liverpool goals in the process, but neither he nor the amassed home support will care about that. As the old adage goes ‘they all count’ and he already has enough worldies to his name.

The Equaliser That Wasn’t

Brentford reacted well to going behind and continued to push their hosts hard for the rest of the match. We thought that this never say die attitude had delivered justice to proceedings 5 minutes before half-time.

A ball upfield was flicked on by Toney into the Mbuemo’s bounds forward. The Cameroon international left Van Dijk in his dust as he hooved in on goal before skipping past the covering Trent Alexander-Arnold and chipping the ball over Alisson’s dive. Parity was restored to the scoreline for the full three minutes it took for VAR to rule the goal out for offside. From watching highlights it appears Mbuemo had lent inches offside, but these days it only needs to be millimetres, so it was 1-0 to Liverpool once more at the break.

1,300th Anfield Win

The second half can be succinctly summed up as loads of chances but no goals. Both teams went full attack in the second half in an attempt to bring forth a torrent of goals.

As Brentford countered the host’s threat with a brilliant display of teamwork and inspirational last-ditch defending their hosts reverted to type with more agricultural tackles and cynical playing of the ref.

Ibrahim Konate was the next home player to go in the book for slicing down Mbuemo as he burst over halfway in the 54th minute. Both of the hosts centre backs were now in the book and they were both lucky to still on the pitch as the game reached the hour mark. First Konate got nothing for taking Toney in a chokehold on halfway, then Van Dijk got away with clattering the Bee’s talisman in the back of the head with an elbow a few minutes later.

They also both survived Klopp’s hook as he chose to make just the 4 substitutions. Darwin Nunez was first to be sacrificed for his shocking profligacy, replaced by Luis Diaz. Jordan Henderson, James Milner and Kostas Tsimikas were the others brought on to drag their team over the line, with Diogo Jota, Curtis Jones and Andy Robertson the other players hooked off.

These changes worked as Liverpool successfully defended their slim lead through to the final whistle to rack up their 1,300th win at their home stadium.

“Can We Have A Referee?”

An effort helped in no small part by their constant timewasting, for which they were only punished once. Alisson picked up a card in the 76th minute for taking so long over his goal kick that even the deaf, dumb and blind man in black couldn’t ignore.

The amount of home team fouls the ref let slide through without punishment was incredible. Perhaps the vociferous nature of the home team’s constant whinging whenever he dared to give a decision against their team cowed the ref’s resolve to do the right thing, as the host’s were given free reign to be as agricultural as they wanted.

How the hosts ended the game with the full 11 man compliment left on the pitch is anyone’s guess? One thing that is not in doubt though is that seeing the team I idolised as a youngster betray the tenets of the beautiful game by so fully embracing the dark side of the sport had once and for all severed my love for Liverpool Football Club.

My past love for the team was tainted by their conduct in this match in a clear illustration of why you should never meet your idols. Your idea of what things will be like is always far better than the reality.

Despite the last 2 days seeing the final games of the League One, Championship and League Two regular seasons I had been fastidiously ignoring football to sort out other areas of my life. Then I checked the scores when I returned to my flat tonight and my attention was snapped back onto the sport.

It wasn’t MK Dons being relegated from League One, Northampton Town securing passage in the other direction or the Den collapsing in on itself as Millwall fell out of the Championship play-off places that caught my attention. It is the 3 Premier League games that have me transfixed.

With 4 of the 5 teams in the relegation fight all in action this bank holiday was always likely to produce an interesting set of matches, but no-one could have predicted the blockbusters delivered.

First up were Leicester City, who headed down to Craven Cottage to take on a Fulham team cruising to a top half finish. I expected a simple 2-0 home win, what was served up instead was a 5-3 goal fest.

The hosts raced into a 3-0 lead before halftime and when they added a 4th early in the second half it looked like game over for the foxes but they weren’t ready to roll over and die just yet.

They pulled one back on just before the hour mark through Harvey Barnes and even seeing talisman Jamie Vardy miss from the penalty spot and Willian complete his brace to restore the hosts 4 goal cushion within 10 minutes the visitors refused to crumble.

Sure their two goals in the last 10 minutes of the match, including a successful penalty by James Maddison, weren’t enough to salvage a much needed point or stop them sliding into the relegation zone by day’s end but they can at least take some hope from the fact that they clearly still have the stomach for the fight ahead.

Everton were the next team fighting for their lives on the road today and those fans who made the 273 mile trip down to East Sussex will be returning to Merseyside in a state of pure ecstasy. Brighton may be on the brink of securing European football for next season but today they were blown to smithereens by their visitors.

It took all of 34 seconds for Abdoulaye Doucoure to fire the Toffees into the lead and just under half an hour later he had doubled their advantage. An own goal by Brighton keeper Jason Steele made them the second relegation threatened team to go in at the break today 3 goals to the good.

Dwight McNeil added Everton’s fourth with 14 minutes of the match remaining before putting the gloss on a 5-1 away win by completing his brace in the 6th minute of second half stoppage time. Alexis Mac Allister snuck a consolation goal for Brighton in between McNeil’s strikes, but the 3 points had long been Everton’s as they continue their fight for their still to be a Merseyside derby next season.

With those early insane goal-fests in the history books it would have been plausible for the 8pm kick off between the bottom two to be the dud game of the day, with both teams shutting up shop in a desperate attempt not to be beaten.

Nottingham Forest and Southampton both had other ideas at the City Ground though as they went at it at 1,000mph from the first second. A three minute brace from the host’s Taiwo Awoniyi gave Forest a cushion after 21 minutes, but that only lasted 240 seconds before the Saints had one back through Carlos Alcaraz.

Morgan Gibbs-White restored the host’s cushion from the penalty spot a minute before half-time. This was not enough to kill off a Southampton team desperate for a positive result though and they took just 6 minutes of the second half to deflate the cushion once more. This time it was Lycano who headed them back into contention.

It took Forest till the 73rd minute to restore their cushion once again. This time Danilo rifled home from inside the area having been set up by Gibbs-White and, despite a 96th minute James Ward-Prowse penalty slotted straight down the centre they were able to hold onto their lead till the final whistle.

This crucial win for Forest and a loss that almost certainly condemns Southampton to their first second-tier season in a decade next season was the final action of triplet of Premier League games that saw 21 goals scored.

The upshot of this crazy day at the bottom of the Premier League is that Southampton are doomed, even 3 wins from their last 3 games may not be enough to save them. Whilst Forest and Everton have put their fate firmly in their own hands with crucial wins that give them clear breathing space to Leeds United and Leicester in the battle to avoid the drop.

Saturday 22nd April 2023: Premier League: Gtech Community Stadium: Brentford vs Aston Villa

It’s never a good feeling to travel to see your team when they’ve lost the last 3 games on the trot. Even worse news for me as I made the journey was that Aston Villa were on fire, having won 7 of their last 8 games, including all of their previous 5, – Brentford had won just 2 over the same period.

Uni Emery had turned the Villains into a winning machine as they close in on European football next season despite being plagued by injuries. Philippe Coutinho, Matty Cash, Boubacar Kamara and Leon Bailey all missing for the visitors and their squad is squeezed so thin that their bench included two keepers and two untested debutants.

.Brentford’s stuttering form had seen their own chances of a European tour next season dropping away. The performances haven’t been good either – part of the reason to delays on my St. Marys, Old Trafford and Leicester blogs is that I have no wish to relive those matches yet.

So I wasn’t expecting much on the long train to London. My only ray of hope was that Brentford had won their past 4 home games against Villa and had only lost at home twice all season.

Starting Well

Against the form book it was Brentford who started strongest, closing the visitors down with a tenacity unseen in months. We had even remembered how to attack, with Mbuemo smashing goalward from just inside the box just 4 minutes in. His shot sailed straight into Emiliano Martinez’s grateful gloves, but at least it was a sign of intent from the hosts. The Villa keeper would have to be alert 6 minutes later, pulling off a splendid snatch off the feet of Toney within the six yard box as Shade slipped a sumptuous cross through to the back post.

Villa soon asserted themselves in the match though. Ollie Watkins going on a charge into the area in the 8th minute before being bullied off the ball as he shaped to shoot.

Settling In

The game settled down after the opening exchanges into a turgid midfield slug-fest. Both teams had their chances during the rest of the half, but every time Brentford got forward the final ball was inches ahead of onrushing teammates.

Matters in midfield came close to boiling over in the 23rd minute as a loose tackle by Christian Norgaard led to a mini-melee which saw both the Bees’ midfielder and Leander Dendoncker of Villa pick up bookings.

Neither teams lacked for effort, but the end product was dreadful. As the game limped towards half-time Ashley Young picked up Villa’s second yellow of the match for the accumulation of niggly tackles.

Brentford has been the team on top all half and if they had managed to find a decent final pass they may have headed down the tunnel with the advantage over their visitors. Maybe even if they had it wouldn’t have mattered though as the few shots they had all found their way straight down Martinez’s throat. The game made it to the break all square.

Substitution Invites The Swarm

Having dragged his team to the break on equal term with their hosts Emiliano Martinez’s reward was to be hooked at half-time. After the match Unai Emery attributed this strange decision to the keeper struggling with a stomach bug.

Whatever the reason for this change it was a huge confidence boost for the Bees to see their main tormentor removed from the board and they started the second period in swarming mood.

Kevin Shade was especially in the mood to cause trouble as he skinned Ashley Young twice in three minutes down the right wing, but both times his cross was wayward at best. Mbuemo was the next to try his luck from the right, cutting inside to flash a cross-cum-shot across the face of goal. It failed to trouble Robin Olsen, the replacement between the posts, much.

He was troubled seconds later though when a stunning ball lofted over the top from Mbuemo set Shade up with a one-on-one that he won by simply swaggering past Olsen. The hard part done Shade then proceeded to shank his shot wide of the post and smashing into the stanchion holding up the net, from just 6 yards out.

Still less than 10 minutes into the second half it was now Mbuemo’s chance to screw up a golden opportunity. A clearance hacked upfield by Rico Henry was flicked round the corner by Shade sweetly into Mbuemo’s stride. Rather than hoving in on goal Bryan dithered on the ball allowing Villa’s defence to reorganise and snuff out the chance in it’s crib.

Despite the lack of end product the intricate link up play between Mbuemo and Shade was scrambling the Villa defence. Without the calming influence of Martinez marshalling them from behind their cohesion had been blown to the winds, but it would take till the 65th minute for the hosts to take full advantage of their new found utter dominance of play.

Neither Shade nor Mbuemo would be the one to provide the telling touch to open the scoring though. That would be left to Ivan Toney, minutes after Mbuemo had launched the ball into the stratosphere from inches out at the back post.

Toney showed his teammate how it should be done, meeting an Mbuemo cross from the right with a bullet header at the back post that left Olsen grasping at thin air. Finally Brentford had the lead they deserved.

Ivan came inches away from doubling the lead minutes later as his acrobatic bicycle kick whistled past the left post, with Olsen statuesque in the centre of the net.

Failure To Capitalise

Having broken through it seemed like only a matter of time before the floodgates opened and the torrent of goals started pouring in. It was not to be.

The longer the half dragged on without Brentford adding to their lead the more nervous I became. Particularly as the fresher legs of the three Villa substitutes, brought on whilst I was still celebrating the opener, began to make an impact.

The lengthy break in play whilst Lucas Digne received treatment for a gash on his head caused by a late Mbuemo high boot, for which he escaped punishment, did little to replenish our energy levels. Digne was allowed to carry straight on once the physios had been working on him on the pitch for 5 minutes, which seems at odds with the nominal focus on greater care of the players.

The Sucker Punch

In the final 5 minutes the pressure on the hosts ratcheted up to intolerable levels as the Bees shrank away from the challenge and dropped deeper and deeper into the defence of their lead.

Villa waited till the 88th minute, with the hosts hanging on by their fingertips, to crush the dreams of every home fan with an equaliser they had done so little to deserve before the final 5 onslaught.

The equaliser itself was a goal as messy as they come. A throw-in created chaos in the box, the ball was punted goalward, deflected off a defender’s leg to the feet of a striker who bundled it home from 3 yards out.

Those who had made the journey down from Birmingham couldn’t have cared less how it happened though because they all count the same.

All that mattered to the visiting fans was that Villa had equalised in the final minutes of a match which they had been blown to smithereens for much of. Having been on that side of many a match I know that it feels like a win despite walking away with one point instead of three.

Desolation is the only word that does justice to being on the wrong end of such a result. When that goal went in the home ends were a silent as a morgue.

The worst was yet to come for the home fans however as a ball through the centre was expertly dispatched past Olsen by super Frank Onyeka, only for the linesman’s flag to chalk off this gorgeous winner for offside.

Brentford dominated proceedings, had the ball in the net twice and would have been great value for the win, only to see a defensive melee and a linesman’s flag condemn them to a draw.

If a draw had been offered to the home fans before kick-off many would’ve bitten your hand off for it – given the form of both teams – but as we traipsed out after the final whistle this draw felt like 2 points dropped.

Personally, it also felt like another nail in the coffin of our European dreams. The sole ray of hope in that regard was that the performance level had finally turned around and if the next few continued to improve at this rate the results should start coming our way again soon.

Any team that cycles through three or more managers in a single season clearly has issues, ask Southampton.

Leeds United clearly have more than most though. The man they have turned too in their fight against relegation this season is none other than disgraced ex-England manager Sam Allardyce.

This is the manager sacked by the FA mere 67 days after taking over in the England dugout, after he was caught taking money to help businessmen skirt FA rules on third party ownership of players.

I understand that Leeds last experience of relegation from the Premier League, at the end of the 2003/04 season, was extremely traumatic for the club. Dropping to the depths of League One would be hellish for any team that sees themselves as one of the biggest clubs in the nation – especially as it took till the 2020/21 season for them to return the top tier.

Turning to a manager previously mired in so much controversy, on the eve of a duo of games which are in all probability unwinnable anyway, who will need time to affect the team’s performances stinks of desperation.

That unwinnable duo of games are away to Manchester City, building up their usual end of the season invincibility, and at home to Newcastle United. There are very few managers in the world that could steer this Leeds team to more than a single point with that run and Sam Allardyce isn’t one of them.

I may be wrong about that, but it still feels like a moon-shot from a board grasping for anything that will avert disaster.

Saturday 29th April 2023: Premier League: Gtech Community Stadium: Brentford vs Nottingham Forest

Following Brentford over the past few months has been a trying endeavour. Lacklustre performances and a run, since the hard fought derby win, that had seen them win just between 6th March and 26th April have made it difficult for me to get excited about the long journeys I take to watch them play.

It hardly helps matters that their singular win in that period came against a bottom-dwelling Southampton team destined for the drop. Even then the Saints could have been well and truly out of sight before half time if they possessed the services of a half decent striker.

The Villa game last weekend signalled a turning point in the hosts season though as they were back to their buzzing best against Villa, only to concede an 88th minute equaliser that denied them all 3 points. The green shoots of recovery continued midweek at Stamford Bridge though as they secured a 2-0 victory over their stuttering hosts with just 1 shot on target.

Unfortunately for the Bees, Nottingham Forrest have also shown a startling up-turn in form in the past 7 days. First they equalised twice at Anfield to push their rejuvenated hosts all the way before finally succumbing to a late Salah winner.

They followed that excellent performance with another in mid-week as Brighton were ripped apart at the City Ground as Forest secured their first win since 5thh Feb, to haul themselves out of the relegation zone.

So what we had then was two teams finally turning around dreadful run of recent form and looking to build momentum for the crucial run-in. The hosts trying to keep hopes of going on a European tour next season alive; the visitors hoping to keep themselves outside the drop zone and relegation to the second tier. A true showdown in the making

When the game got underway it was no showdown at all as the Bees ripped into their visitors. Forest were content to soak up the pressure and hit the hosts on the break as they had decided this was the way to secure the points they are desperate for to avoid an instant return to the Championship.

Brentford poured forward to try and take early advantage of the visitor’s stand-off approach and were soon launching wave after wave of attacks on the Forest goal. Rico Henry was having particular joy down his flank, but his crosses frequently failed to find a teammate.

Forest were defending expertly as a group and it was one the break that they were the first team to conjure up a clear cut chance. A surge down the left by Orel Mangala provided space for a cross into the centre and David Raya had to be at his most alert to snaffle the ball off the toes of Brennan Johnson, lurking with intent at the back post.

That chance aside it was the hosts making most of the early running and they were unlucky not to take the lead after 12minutes. Toney fashioned a pocket of space on the edge of the box but, rather than powering his shot either side of Keylor Navas, he punted the ball straight down the keeper’s throat.

Despite their dominance of both possession and territory throughout the first half the hosts were unable to properly test Navas before half-time, a Kevin Shade header into his gloves from a free kick into the mixer being the closest they would come to breaking through.

In the single minute of injury time Forest would punish them for their profligacy. Their breaks had already been causing the hosts issues, with Rico Henry entering the Ref’s book for cynically cutting one out on the half hour mark.

When one of these breaks landed them a throw in deep in Bee’s territory they chucked it into the centre. Chaos ensued in the hosts backline and when the ball landed at the feet of Danilo and the birthday boy didn’t need asking twice to rifle it home past a statuesque Raya.

To see a Forest team that had been outplayed so exquisitely all half land the perfect sucker punch with the last kick of the half was a huge kick in the proverbials for every single home fan. The atmosphere that had been building throughout the first half was sucked out of the stadium faster than air out of a punctured space suit.

The conspicuous absence of half-time changes by Thomas Frank underlined his faith in his team’s ability to turn things around. It would take a long time and the full quota of substitutions for his faith to be rewarded.

Despite his team leading it was Steve Cooper who blinked first, replacing Taiwo Awoniyi with Andre Ayew in the 9th minute of the half. Ayew would be on the pitch all of 90 seconds before collecting a yellow card.

This distruption to the visitor’s personnel appeared to unsettle them and the hosts really should have equalised before the hour mark. A brilliant through ball set Shade free on the left. He looked up to see Mbuemo sprinting into the box and slid the ball into where his stride should have ended up for a simple side foot finish. Unfortunately, by the time the ball arrived in this perfect position Mbuemo has checked his run in anticipation of a cut back to be swept home from the penalty spot.

The lack of other attackers following up to capitalise on the chance was the catalyst for Frank to go full send with a gung-ho double substitution on the hour mark. Rico Henry, a full-back and Damsgaard, a box-to-box midfielder, were replaced by Yoanne Wissa, an out and out attacker and Josh DaSilva, an attacking midfielder capable of moments of magic and sensational finishes from distance.

When this double hadn’t born fruit ten minutes later Mr. Frank banked on three subs in five minutes. It would take till the game had ticked over into it’s final ten, with Forest having made a further two subs to clog up their quota of three substitution windows in the half, for this flurry of subs to finally pay dividends.

Before the long awaited equaliser arrived Ben Mee went for a shot at immortality with a spectacular bicycle kick from 12 yards out that peeled the paint off the bar as it whistled over the top.

What happened next was insane. Forest conceded a freekick 26 yards from goal in line with the right hand post. Toney hovered over it before threading the ball through the wall and into the only area where Navas’ palm could do nothing to keep it out.

The keeper could only watch on in horror as his shove round the post smashed into the post instead and sent the ball careening into the back of the net. Cue bedlam.

My fellow home fans and I exploded in pure unbridled ecstasy at this late reprieve. Little did we know things were about to get even better.

Having given Forest the lead Danilo was forced to limp off with a leg injury in the last few minutes, leaving the visitors a man light till the final whistle. Whilst it’s never nice to see any player go off injured, it’s a lovely feeling to realise they can’t be replaced and your team will now have the advantage for the remainder of the match. Even better when the 4th official flashes up Seven minutes of injury time.

Brentford are known for ending games well and so they proved to be again here.

In the 94th minute DaSilva found the ball at his feet wide on the right, cut inside into the box and let rip from 17 yards. His spectacular shot smashed into the bottom corner. Navas’ despairing dive arriving milliseconds too late to deny the hosts a winner they thoroughly deserved.

We even got to celebrate the winner twice after a prolonged VAR check for offside. A grandstand finish to the match ending in best way possible.

COME ON BRENTFORD!!!

The confidence boost of this comeback victory, on the back of the midweek win at Stamford Bridge is the perfect preparation for their next game – a visit to Anfield to take on a resurgent Liverpool team on Coronation day.

I grew up a confirmed royalist, but I have also wanted to attend a competitive match at Anfield for as long as I can remember. Faced with this difficult decision football won.

I will be spending coronation day watching the team I love and have a season ticket for taking on my boyhood team on their home patch. COME ON BRENTFORD!

This Premier League has seen a record 20 managerial changes since the start of the season and most of them have barely been blips on my radar.

Today however, two from the last month have turned into blaring beacons as Palace moved beat West Ham United 4-3 to overhaul what had been a 12-point chasm to move above Chelsea in the table. Their visitors today are now the only team from the capital below the blues. That gap is just 5 points now though and with the way things are going at Stamford Bridge it may not be long before it disappears entirely.

Chelsea have been struggling all season and when a 2-2 draw at home to Everton saw their new owners part ways with Graham Potter the new owners turned to ex midfield maestro Frank Lampard to reverse their fortunes. The very same Lampard who had been sacked by Everton in January as relegation fears engulfed the club.

In Seven games, ten and a half hours of football, in all competitions Lampard’s Chelsea have scored just one goal, been knocked out of the Champions League and secured just a single point in the league. A point that was secured in a 0-0 draw with a similarly dismal (at the time) Liverpool team.

One point from an available fifteen is relegation form and any other manager overseeing such a disastrous run could expect the sack imminently. Lampard may be safe for now, but only because the owners are unlikely to want to admit how badly they’ve got things wrong.

Chelsea will almost certainly be safe come the end of the season too, but with no win in 5, just 9 points separating them from the drop and no sign of improvement in results or performances it’s not impossible that they may yet be playing in the Championship next season.

A similar fate appeared to be closing in on Crystal Palace at the end of March, when they sacked Patrick Viera on 17 March 2023, with the team not having won a game since 31st December 2022.

Palace also turned to a club legend, Roy Hodgson, to turn their fortunes around and with marked different results to their neighbours on the north bank of the Thames. Hodgson has overseen six league games since taking the helm and hasn’t lost a single won.

His record in his current sparkling spell helming the Eagles has so far consisted of five victories, fifteen goals and a single draw (at home to Lampard’s old club Everton). That’s what I call an impact.

The contrasting fortunes of these clubs in turning to old hands highlights the vast differences between them.

Crystal Palace have the stability of having had the same owner for multiple seasons now. A local man with a vested interest in seeing his home town team succeed, who turned to a tried and tested manager to steady the ship.

Chelsea, unfortunately for their fans, have recently been forced into a change of ownership due to circumstances outside of their control. They have been taken over by a foreign owner with no personal ties to the club, who has turned to an ex-player with one unsuccessful spell in the dugout under his belt.

Since they re-joined their respective clubs, Hodgson has made Palace irrepressibly good whilst Lampard has made Chelsea indescribably bad.