The Football tourist

The next football season starts in just 2 months time, as it tries to shimmy its way around the World Cup in Qatar in November. As such I feel now is the perfect time to outline which teams will be in which league when things get underway again in August.

South Coast
Brighton and Hove Albion, Southampton and Bournemouth

Having secured promotion back to the top table in the final weeks of the season, at the first time of asking, Bournemouth will be looking to avoid dropping straight back through the trap door again.

Brighton have shown great promise under Graham Potter, but a lack of cutting edge in-front of goal remains an Achilles heel that must be addressed to maintain their top flight status long-term.

Southampton have been a nailed-on mid-table finisher every season since their ascension to the league for the 2012/13 season. However, they are also as certain to deliver one dreadful performance that sees them mauled by as many a 9 goals to nil. Who will be the team to maul them like that this season?

North-East
Newcastle United

The flood of money that flowed in from Saudi Arabia in the middle of the 2021/22 season was not only enough to rescue the Magpies from their relegation scrap, but also to finish up just 2 points outside the top 10. With a full summer to reinforce their squad and for Eddie Howe to train his team in his ever exciting and effective tactics the pride of the North-East have the chance to become a true powerhouse of the beautiful game. The current top teams had better be wary of them.

Yorkshire
Leeds United

Having managed to pull off a miraculous escape on the final day of last season they will look to push further up the table next season. Whether they will be capable of this without their fabled saviour Marcelo Bielsa remains to be seen. If Jesse Marsch can can get the fans onboard they could be a real force to be reckoned with.

North-West
Everton, Liverpool, Manchester United and Manchester City

The loyal blues of Merseyside were key to their teams survival at the end of last season and they will demand much more from their team in 2022/23. Lampard may be the man to lead them up the table, but if results go against him in the early weeks he may find his fate at Goodison Park to be the same as Benitez’s last season.

Across Stanley Park things look far rosier for the Red Merseysiders, despite their failure to complete the unprecedented quadruple in the dying days of last season. It does look to be a difficult summer in prospect for Klopp and his team though, with both Salah and Mane rumoured to be on their way to pastures new for next season. If they do leave then both Jota and Luis Diaz will have the weight of the world on their shoulders. How they deal with this and who is brought in to support them is crucial to whether Liverpool’s brilliant run of seasons will continue or come to an emergency stop. The capture of Darwin Nunez from Benfica is an excellent start to their summer business.

The task for Man U’s new manager, Erik Ten Hag, is far more daunting than any other manager in the league. He must stabilise and rebuild a collapsed giant of the game whilst under the immense pressure of the fans to provide this miraculous turn around in fortune within months. Such a miraculous turn of events normally takes years to achieve.

Man City are the undeniable kings of the Premier League with 4 titles in the past 5 seasons and with the addition of Haaland to their ranks for the new season few would bet against them winning the title again. The real challenge for City is to find a way to translate their domestic form into success in European competitions.

The Midlands
Wolverhampton Wanderers, Leicester City, Aston Villa and Nottingham Forest

Since their earth-shattering title win 6 seasons ago Leicester have drifted back into mid-table obscurity. Despite the best efforts of Brendan Rodgers and Jamie Vardy this looks to be where they will stay for the foreseeable future. They may challenge for European qualification in the upcoming season, but if they do it will be for the lower competitions. Champions League qualification appears to be well beyond them, but then so did the title all those seasons ago.

Wolves have a tried and tested formula, it has worked for them for many seasons now so they’re sticking too it. If they wish to move up from the morass of mid-table mediocrity a few tweaks to the formula may be necessary.

Aston Villa have done very well in the seasons since their most recent return to the top flight. Their history in both the top tier and in European football is undeniable, they have the passionate fanbase that could easily fill Villa Park 3 times over to prove it. The glory days of this brilliant club may have been back in the 80’s but with Steven Gerrard now comfortable in the dugout and with the brilliant job he achieved at Rangers in mind, perhaps the glory days will be returning to Villa Park again soon.

Talking of glory days returning to the Midlands it is brilliant to see Nottingham Forest returning to the top flight for the first time in the 21st century. Having been lucky enough to have visited their City Ground towards the end of last season I can personally attest to the incredible support their fans give the team and to the beauty of their ground. Any Premier League fans who are lucky enough to visit this gorgeous ground on the banks of the Trent will know how lucky they are to be there when they arrive. I hope they manage to survive their first season back at the top table and can continue to dine there for many seasons to come.

London
Arsenal, Tottenham Hotspur, Chelsea, West Ham United, Crystal Palace, Fulham and Brentford

The capital city of the nation contains 7 of the teams for the new season of the Premier League and this number is far higher than it has been for many seasons.

Arsenal are one of those teams and having missed out on Champions League qualification in the dying weeks of last season they will be extremely anxious not to miss out again in the coming season. The failure of 2021/22 was made worse by the fact that it was their North London rivals Tottenham Hotspur that qualified for that illustrious competition in their place.

For their part Spurs will be buzzing after securing their return to the top European competition for the first time since reaching the 2018/19 final. To have done so at the expense of the Gunners and stolen from them the joy of celebrating St. Totteringham’s day is simply the cherry on that delicious cake. Clutching defeat from the jaws of victory is synonymous with Spurs to the point where being ‘Spursy’ is a phrase that has entered the common parlance of football fans, Spurs will be on a mission to prove that this season was not simply a flash in the pan and in doing so consign the idea of being ‘Spursy’ to the dustbin of history.

To say that Chelsea have had a tumultuous season is to understate it dramatically. They have had to ride out the effect of sanctions being imposed on the club, due to Roman Abramovich’s links to Vladimir Putin, including a short ban on selling tickets. Unable to make any match day income from shop sales or programmes and unable to renew players contracts. Despite this turmoil and the takeover coming too late to allow them to sort out the contracts they still managed to finish the season in 3rd place. With the new owners now in place and a full summer window to rebuild their squad just what they will be able to achieve in the new season is a scary prospect.

West Ham United have seriously overachieved in the 2021/22 season with not just a 7th place finish in the league, that secures them a place in next season’s Europa Conference League, but also a stupendous run to the semi-finals of the Europa League to their name, only losing to eventual winners Eintracht Frankfurt. This brilliant performance has secured David Moyes’ place in Hammers folklore and if he can deliver another European challenge this season and qualify for a 2023/24 European competition then he will only be beaten in that folklore by the team that won the World Cup in 1966.

With so many teams for the new Premier League season hailing from London it is shocking that only one of them is located south of the River Thames. Crystal Palace are that team and under Patrick Viera they have become a bogey-team for many of the clubs above them. Wilfred Zaha remains their talisman for the coming season and if Viera can continue to improve on those around him then a move up the table, from their 12th place finish in 2021/22 is certainly on the cards.

The bouncing between the top 2 divisions that Fulham appear to have mastered is something that many of the teams they steamrolled in the 2021/22 Championship season would love to replicate. However, for their fans it must be becoming extremely tedious to endure and any way that they can find to exit the cycle this season will be gratefully accepted by their beleaguered fans.

Brentford finished an awe-inspiring 13th place in the table in their first season back in the top division since 1946/47. To say that this has been ecstasy to bear witness too is the understatement of the millennium. From the opening day win against Arsenal at the new stadium through the 3-3 draw with Liverpool in the same location, to the 4-1 destruction of Chelsea at Stamford Bridge and the 2-1 comeback win at Goodison Park, this season has delivered some amazing memories that will stay with me forever. Retaining the services of the peerless Christian Eriksen for next season will be crucial to ensuring theses Canaan days continue for the ‘Bus stop in Hounslow’. As I will be a season ticket holder for the Bees for the 2022/23 season I hope that the Canaan days do continue and that I will be able to enjoy many glorious days following the Bees for a long time to come.

Fully recharged and having sorted out the technical problems that invaded my life last week, I’m back on the blog trail again. Starting out this time with a simpler blog that outlines the winners and losers of the 2021/22 season in England.

WINNERS
Champions League – Real Madrid
Europa League -Eintracht Frankfurt
Europa Conference League – Roma
League Cup – Liverpool
FA Cup -Liverpool

Premier League Champions – Manchester City

Qualification for Champions League 2022/23
Manchester City, Liverpool, Chelsea, Tottenham Hotspur

Qualification for Europa League 2022/23
Arsenal, Manchester United

Qualification for Europa Conference League 2022/23
West Ham United

Relegated to the EFL Championship for the 2022/23 season
Burnley, Watford, Norwich City

Promoted to the Premier League for the 2022/23 season
Fulham (Championship Champions)
Bournemouth
Nottingham Forest (Play-off winners)

Relegated to EFL League One for the 2022/23 season
Barnsley, Derby County, Peterborough Untied

Promoted to the EFL Championship for the 2022/23 season
Wigan Athletic (Champions)
Rotherham United
Sunderland (Playoffs)

Relegated to EFL League Two for the 2022/23 season
Crewe Alexandra, AFC Wimbledon, Doncaster Rovers, Gillingham

Promoted to EFL League One for the 2022/23 season
Forest Green Rovers (Champions)
Exeter City, Bristol Rovers
Port Vale (Playoffs)

Relegated to the National League for the 2022/23 season
Scunthorpe United, Oldham Athletic

Oldham become the first former Premier League team to fall through the trap-door into Non-League as their Shezurrection fell short of it’s goal. The tactic worked twice before but this time it was a case of third time unlucky. The Latics fell 6 points short of maintaining their league status for another season. The day their relegation was confirmed was marred by a pitch invasion by fans angry at the owner’s mismanagement of their club. Best of luck in the National League next season and I hope to see you back in League Two for the 2023/24 season.

Promoted to EFL League Two for the 2022/23 season
Stockport County (Champions)
Grimsby Town (Playoffs)

Those are all the winners and losers of the 2021/22 season, but with the fixtures for the 2022/23 Premier League season being released on Thursday June 16th now is the time to look to the future. See you in that future soon

Sunday 22nd May 2022: Premier League Final Day: Brentford Community Stadium: Brentford vs Leeds United

So here it is, the final day of the Premier League season and I am going into this match incredibly laid-back because Brentford are already safely marooned in mid-table and having a turbo charged end to the season. The Bees came into this one having not lost at home since a 2-0 reverse to Newcastle on 26th February and haven’t conceded a goal in the 360 minutes of football they have played at the Brentford Community Stadium since then.

My mood was further relaxed to the point that I was almost horizontal by the fact that the Bees final day opponents were Leeds United. The Yorkshire team are in dreadful form coming into this one, having not won since 9th April when they beat the Hornets 3-0 at Vicarage Road.

Leeds had only managed to secure 2 draws from their last 5 matches, losing the other 3, and coming into this one they knew that another draw would be no good to them. Their awful run of recent form meaning that their fight to maintain their Premier League status for another season was now out of their hands, due to their despicable -38 goal difference.

The only way they were staying up now was to fight for their lives to get a positive result from this match and hope that Newcastle United would be able to take points off Burnley, also fighting for their lives, at the Lancashire team’s home of Turf Moor. Their goal difference being 20 worse than the Clarets meant that equalling the host’s result at Turf Moor will be no use at all.

There were only two rays of sunshine on this pile of dark omens for the travelling Leeds faithful. The first being that Burnley haven’t managed to win on the final day of the season in any of their last 5 seasons during their current run in the Premier League. The second being that they did manage to score a 95th minute equaliser in the home match against the Bees. Knowing that they can score late goals against their opponents today may prove to be crucial if they need a goal to stay up with things going their way elsewhere. The only small problem with all that though is that Brentford have manged to salvage 15 points from losing positions this season so Leeds can’t count their chickens till the final whistle blows.

My route to the stadium was a little different to usual as I had come down to London for a rearranged (2020’ed) concert on the Saturday evening, so I had to get a District Line train from Victoria aiming for Gunnersbury and looking to walk from there. The first train to arrive at Victoria was a Wimbledon service so I had to make my way to Earls Court, to change there, accompanied by a load of bouncing Chelsea fans and Watford fans on their way to their teams Premier League swansong at Stamford Bridge.

I left those fans as I emerged at Earls Court just as the Richmond service I required was pulling out of the station from the platform opposite me. The annoyance of missing this train by seconds was compounded by the fact that Richmond services were only running every 10 minutes. That wait for the next Richmond service was the most frustrating moment of my season since the Sheffield train delays on my way to Hillsborough.

Thankfully my journey got a lot easier once I emerged into the blazing sunlight at Gunnersbury. Just a turn to the left and then straight on till the stadium hoves into view on your right. Google Maps had this slated to take 17 minutes but it only took me 12 minutes despite stopping to grab a drink on the way.

I turned right into Lionel South Road to find the atmosphere rather too chilled for my liking. There seemed to be just an expectation of an easy win pervading the home fans and this was only increased by the fact that the Leeds fans had no faith in getting what they needed from the game. The fans that had travelled down from Yorkshire were heading the other way to me in order to find their turnstiles chanting “We’re going down, we’re going down and next season you will be too”. Whilst I was certain they were right about the part I badly hoped they will be proved wrong on the second part by the end of next season.

Making my way down the Road towards my turnstile I spotted Ethan Pinnock standing near the players entrance taking pictures with young fans and their families. Pinnock may be injured and unable to do his part on the pitch but it’s great to see him still playing his part in boosting the morale of the fans. It is very rare to see players interacting with fans like this and according to the elder gentleman nearby, that I saw sitting on the barrier and stopped to talk too, he had been doing so for the previous 20 minutes without so much as pulling a face. That’s awesome from Ethan Pinnock and I can’t wait to see him back on the pitch with his teammates next season.

There was still one final match of the season for the rest of the Bees to get through first though so I made my way through the crowds to my turnstile. Despite a last minute problem with my e-ticket I was able to get inside thanks to some super-helpful stewards.
Before heading to my seat though I stopped to take in the view on the concourse screens and the huge banner at the bottom of each which was scrolling through the starting 11’s and substitutes bench for both teams. I was able to get every single one of them recorded on the back of my programme before making my way to my seat, as the teams were being announced over the tannoy by the brilliant Peter Gilham.

This programme note-taking saw the return of a lovely tradition for me, the player missing from the programme squad list that is in the matchday squad. Today’s player in question was on the Leeds bench and his name is Archie Gray, a 16 year old forward with the squad number 63. The fact that he was not included in the opposition roll call section inside the programme either gave me the sense that he had yet to make his debut for the club. As such I was intrigued by the possibility of him making a very late cameo in the match and scoring a piledriver from 35 yards that secured Leeds’s survival. Though not as much as I was by the possibility of ex-Leeds man Pontus Jansson scoring a last minute header to rob his old team of the result they needed.

I doubt that much of this was going through the minds of the Leeds die-hards that had made the trip to London without any expectation of seeing their team survive. Despite this lack of expectation there was no lack of hope in the party atmosphere they created before kick-off. A huge wall of noise blasted into the visiting players as they made their way over to their fans at the end of their warm-up and at one point I spotted 4 beachballs being thrown around simultaneously by the fans as they were determined to enjoy their day out.

There were also chants of “Marcelo Bielsa” before kick-off in support of the work down by their deposed ex-boss to return them to the Premier League. Whether he would have kept them up will never be known, but now it came down to the players on the day and the efforts of new boss Jesse Marsch to accomplish that goal.

An eerie silence descended over the ground as the teams emerged, Brentford in their Red and White home strip whilst Leeds plumped for a tasteful Lilac number for this final day clash (except for Meslier who had gone full fluorescent carrot), but the atmosphere ramped up again in the away end before the match got underway moments later.

Within 10 seconds of kick-off all the away fans nightmares came inches away from coming true as it really should have been 1-0 to Brentford. Leeds dithered on it in midfield and Toney snuck in to grab the ball off them then drove towards the by-line. His cut back was blocked behind and Eriksen slapped the ball up to Wissa on the penalty spot. Before Wissa could nod it home though there was a wild Leeds head that popped up to steal it off his head and turn it behind for what should have been a corner. The ref’s view is the only one that counts though and he decided to award the visitors a goal kick.

Leeds used the momentum of this let-off to put together a little spell of possession that ended with a throw-in finding it’s way to Sam Greenwood on the edge of the area. He started a theme for the visitors, that would continue throughout the vast majority of the game, by sending the ball to Mars with the speed of Apollo 11. It just kept rising till it passed the goal higher than even 3 London route masters piled on top of one another could reach.

Launching that ball like a rocket to Mars seemed to unsettle the visitors and Meslier in particular as he came inches away from gifting the hosts the lead. Rico Henry took a throw in from 18 yards out on the left touchline that looped towards goal slowly and looked simple for the keeper to collect. Meslier looked to have it safely in his gloves for a split-second before the ball squirmed free and came to rest inches wide of the left post and halfway across the white line. A huge let-off for Leeds that keeps their hopes of survival alive.

There was a lot of end-to-end play early in the match but the goals were threatened less than a Killer Whale is by Plankton. Leeds looked to change that in the 11th minute as some intricate interplay on the left saw them advance to get in-line with the 6 yard box. The resultant cross was begging for a finish that would never come as the Lilac boys in the centre failed to gamble on their teammates getting to crossing level. As such they were all resting near the penalty spot when they needed to be 6 yards further forward.

A minute later it was the hosts time to miss the opportunity for a tap-in. A raking free-kick from Eriksen near the right touchline flew out to Wissa no-more than 3 yards out at the back post. All Wissa needed to do was stretch and it would have been a simple tap-in from point blank range for him, but no stretch was forthcoming and the toenail connection that Wissa did get was only enough to direct the ball into the side netting.

The 15th minute threw up an infuriating moment for the home fans. Brentford were in the middle of a promising break with Wissa and Toney at the heart of it when Toney was pulled to the ground by Kalvin Phillips. Everyone in the stand around me thought the ref was bound to give a free kick to the Bees and were shocked into an aghast silence when the ref gave the decision to the visitors. The disbelief was palpable.

Leeds started to control the game after this decision went their way and created their first decent chance of the match in the 17th minute as Greenwood was released into a corridor of space in the right channel. He advanced into the area but Jansson got across just in time to put him under pressure and Greenwood was unable to aim his effort properly. His shot went fizzing like a thunderbolt towards goal and skimming over the top of the crossbar on its way behind.

A minute later a huge cheer erupted in the away end which I assumed meant that Newcastle had taken the lead at Turf Moor. This was followed by an ever louder cheer 120 seconds later, which I took to be a second goal for the Magpies and Leeds fan enjoying the knowledge that even without a goal in this one they would now be staying up. On looking at the scores on the concourse screens at half-time it appears that the first cheer was for the award of the penalty that was slotted away by Callum Wilson and the second cheer was the one for the ball hitting the back of the Turf Moor net.

Between those two huge cheers Leeds looked to have another reason to celebrate as they had the ball in the Brentford net. A serious of mazy passes on the left hand side pushed the ball inexorably towards the Bees goal and when the ball was snuck through the gap between Raya and his near post by Joe Gelhardt. The visiting fans erupted into unbridled Euphoria but this outpouring of joy was cut short by VAR. After checks at Stockley Park the score was returned to 0-0 and the Leeds fans were momentarily brought crushing down to earth as the goal was ruled out for Gelhardt edging into an offside position before slotting the ball home.

The Newcastle goal at Turf Moor perked up the Leeds fan once again and this translated to their play on the pitch as the pinned Brentford back into their box and piled on the pressure to find the breakthrough. That they failed to do so for a little while yet was more down to their own lack of attacking creativity than any kind of excellent defending by the hosts. Brentford looked to be lacking any ideas of how to get back into the match. They were not just on the beach, they were working on getting burnt.

Jansson took this relaxed attitude to the max in the 25th minute though as he sat down on the grass to catch his breath. To be fair to him though he had taken a ball to the stomach a couple of minutes earlier though and was perhaps still feeling the effects of that impact. Leeds took advantage of this dominance of the match to continue their tradition of firing the ball into outer space from the edge of the box. This time it was Junior Firpo taking his turn at the moon-shot.

This appeared to shake Brentford from their revelry as they finally got on the attack in the 29th minute, breaking upfield from the goal kick that Firpo’s moon-shot granted them. Wissa flicked it forward for Mbeumo to chase but the Leeds defence were quick to sense the danger and got to the ball first to clear up. Mbeumo was too physical in his efforts to recover the ball for the ref’s liking though and Leeds were able to clear the ball far upfield from the resulting free kick.

Brentford were back on the attack within 60 seconds though as Rico and Wissa combined to create an opening on the left. All the opening led too though was a throw-in 18 yards out on the left touchline that Mads Bech launched into the box and onto the head of Ivan Toney. The Bees talisman is normally as deadly as a cyanide injection from inside the area but all he could manage this time was to help the ball on it’s journey across to the far side of the pitch.

The hosts finally managed to put together a period of possession as the half moved into it’s final third. However, the next chance of note wasn’t created until the 34th minute and even then the hosts contrived to take the threat out of it. Mbeumo was fed the ball by Wissa and with the freedom of Hounslow to pick his spot he rolled it at the speed of an arthritic slug into Meslier’s grateful waiting arms. The slightest hint of power or curl on the shot would have caused problems for the Leeds goalkeeper, but it was not to be.

Brentford were finally in the mood to play though and peppered the visitors goalmouth for the next 3 minutes. First Toney ghosted his way past multiple defenders to reach the by-line before chipping a cut back in the direction of Wissa at the back post. Wissa knocked it towards goal, but it was always rising and Meslier made sure it went over the top by leaping like a salmon to fingertip it in the necessary direction. Then Eriksen let fly with a pile-driver that was deflected agonisingly wide of the post on it’s way behind.

The visitors were back on the attack 7 minutes before half-time though and the visiting fans felt they should have been given a penalty when the ball cannoned into the hand of Mads Bech in the middle of the Bees box. Whether their view made it look like the ball had actually struck the hand or their appeals were born out of desperation for a goal, with the fear of a Burnley goal dropping them back into the relegation zone front and centre of their minds, I just don’t know but the ball hit the Bees defender in the middle of his stomach. There is no universe in existence where being hit in the stomach counts as a handball and the away fans appeals were rightly turned down. None of the Leeds players appealed.

Whilst the away fans appealed in vain I took the opportunity to check the scores from around the grounds. This is where I saw that Newcastle were just 1 goal to the good at Turf Moor and whilst Leeds were safe as things stood it would only take a goal from the hosts here or there to flip that situation on it’s head.

Brentford came close to grabbing that all-important goal in this one as they came inches away from the opener in the 43rd minute when Jensen intercepts the ball 20 yards out and fed Mbeumo down the right. His cross-cum-shot drifted a little off target though and looked to be heading Toney’s way for a simple tap-in at the far post but, as with Wissa earlier, he was unable to stretch quite far enough to direct the ball home and it floated behind for a goal kick.

My first thought when the fourth-official raised his board to indicate that there were to be 2 minutes of added-time tacked on to the end of the half was ‘why subject us to any more of this?’. This was to prove prophetic as the only entertainment on offer in the added-time was another moon-shot from the edge of the box. Vitaly Janelt of Brentford was the one trying his luck this time though and, if nothing else, it was a change of pace for the hosts to be trying their luck with this tactic.

I took the time during the break to go and see my family, season-ticket holders near the halfway line, to discuss our perspectives on the first half’s play. On the way down to them I was waylaid by a fellow Bees fan who recognised me from the throngs that had visited Goodison Park last weekend. I had a lovely chat with this fan before continuing on to see my family, but it was not the first time I was recognised on this day. Another Bees fan had recognised me on my walk between Pinnock and my turnstile pre-match and whilst it’s lovely to be recognised it was also a little disconcerting as I am a very private person and being recognised is not normally a factor of life for me.

Anyway, tangent over and back to the match in question. After a quick discussion with the members of my family that I could locate I headed back onto the concourse and took a butchers at the screens to see how the many questions in the air heading into the final day were being answered.

The relegation battle was going Leeds way as Burnley were trailing 1-0 to Newcastle at half-time. Further up the league table it was the Hammers who were ahead in their battle against Man U for Europa League qualification. They were winning on the South Coast whilst the Red Devils were losing in South London and if that state of affairs remained the same at the final David Moyes men would have a chance to go one better than they managed this season in that competition.

The Champions League showdown between the North London teams was panning out just as expected, with Spurs waltzing to victory over basement dwellers Norwich and making Arsenal’s 2-0 lead over awful travellers Everton meaningless in the greater scheme of things.

The title race was turning out to be far more dramatic though as Stevie G was doing his part of the job by inspiring his Villa team to a 1-0 lead at half-time at the Etihad. Liverpool weren’t upholding their end of the deal though as despite scoring themselves that goal had only drawn them level at half-time and obliterated the lead Wolves had established within 3 minutes at Anfield.

I would be keeping a weather eye on all the developments in the North West as the second halves progressed at Turf Moor, Anfield and the Etihad, but turned my attentions back to the action in West London as Leeds beat their hosts back onto the pitch for the second kick-off. Both managers decided to keep their powder dry at half-time and as things got underway for the second half all I was hoping for was for the hosts to look up for it in this half in a way they just hadn’t during their lacklustre first 45.

The signs were excellent in the first minute of the half as the Bees swarmed forward at pace before Eriksen laid it on a plate for an un-marked Mbeumo in the centre of the area. All that was needed was the simplest of finishes either side of Meslier and the hosts would have the lead. So of course Mbeumo tapped it into the keeper’s arms. The groans that permeated the stand around me was biblical.

In the 51st minute and with a load more zip in Brentford’s play since half-time, Mbeumo had another chance to give the hosts the lead. Once again he was found in space by Eriksen but on the right this time. Instead of slotting the ball through to Toney, in acres and acres of space in the centre of the box, he chose instead to send the ball slithering down the right channel instead where Meslier was able to collect it at a saunter. The anger around me that was directed towards Mbeumo for those incidents was visceral, but for me the main emotion was frustration because Mbeumo is such a talented finisher and right now he just wasn’t doing himself any type of justice.

Leeds had struggled to create anything of note during the first 9 minutes of the second half but they were about to be given a gift of gargantuan proportions by the hosts keeper, David Raya. It came from Leeds first decent foray into the Bees half since the restart and when the ball was fed through to Rodrigo, Raya came rushing out to close him down.

He got the ball at this point but his pass out didn’t make a teammate. Instead it went straight to the feet of Raphinha who advanced towards goal. In attempting to make up for this schoolboy error Raya crashed into Raphinha and gave away the clearest penalty I have seen on a football pitch. He was lucky to have defenders nearby that could conceivably have got round to cover in the ref’s approximation. This was the only thing that helped him avoid the straight red card that the away fans were baying for.

Raphinha picked himself up off the turf to fire the ball down the centre of the goal, as though fired from a cannon, whilst Raya dived helplessly away to his left. Before the ball had even crashed into the back of the net the away end exploded into a wall of noise and yellow flares that blocked out the view of the away fans from the rest of the world.

By the time that sea of yellow floated off into the ether and the away fans had re-entered the viewable universe, Thomas Frank had already dipped into his bench resources to try and help his team bounce back from the body blow of going behind. Mr Frank decided that attack was the best form of defence for the final 32 minutes of the match as he removed defensive midfielder Mathias Jensen from the action and replaced him with the mercurial creative force of Josh DaSilva.

The change did not have an immediate impact on play as Jack Harrison drove down the left wing. Janelt followed his keeper’s example by jumping in recklessly and giving away a needless free-kick. The free-kick was easily cleared to the edge of the box but it was slapped straight back toward goal through a forest of legs in the 6 yard box. Thankfully for me and my fellow home fans Raya was equal to this effort though.

This save did not stop the cheers erupting once again in the Leeds end. It took me 10 seconds to work out why they were cheering a failed shot from there own team and then it hit me. Newcastle United must have scored a 2nd goal at Turf Moor and sure enough when I checked my phone I saw that Wilson had his second of the match in Lancashire. Now the Leeds fans knew that converting their 1-0 here into a win will keep them up unless Burnley score 2 in half an hour having not scored in the first hour of play. That or Brentford score 2 here and at this point that looked about as likely as humanity colonising Neptune in the next 3 weeks.

To try and make that colonisation a reality Thomas Frank dipped back into his bench resources again with 25 minutes left. This substitution made no sense at all though as he removed one of the best players of an incredible Bees season, in taking off Rico Henry. To bring Sergi Canos on seemed to be a great idea at the time as it was a simple straight swap and Canos is brilliant on his day. What I can’t understand though is taking off Rico, having another effective if a little quiet match, instead of Mbeumo whose shooting boots had been left on his bed in the pre-match hotel.

As the match entered its final 20 minutes Thomas Frank took another dip in his bench wallet for further resources to tip the scales of the match back into the Bees favour. Mr Frank had decided to go full send for the conclusion to the match, taking off central defender Mads Bech and bringing on attacking midfielder Shandon Baptiste in his place.

Jess Marsch responded to this third and final Bees substitution with one of his own. Marsch decided to remove Joe Gelhardt from the pitch for the final 19 minutes of the match and send on Pascal Struijk to help his team see out the rest of the match and secure their status in the league for next season.

The hosts change seemed to be the most effective in the following 10 minutes as they pinned Leeds back into their own half and barely allowed the visitors 20 yards away from their own goal-line. As for what Brentford’s formation has now become, I will await ideas for how to describe it on the back of a postcard. I could not fathom out what it supposed to be at this point.

This lack of determinable formation came into full focus just 2 minutes after the changes as DaSilva found a pocket of space on the right to whip a tempting cross into the box, but no-one was there in a red and white shirt to tap it home. Brentford now had 7 attacking players on the pitch now, including DaSilva, so why were none of them in the box to get the simplest tap-in of their career?

I took time to ponder this whilst double checking the score news from the North-West. This check gave me a little hope for an end to the final day that would have the world on tenterhooks. Not only had Burnley pulled a goal back at Turf Moor, meaning just one more goal for them and one for the Bees would ruin Leeds day, but Villa had also doubled their lead at the Etihad. Coutinho had put the villains 2-0 to the good so Liverpool were in the place of only needing a single goal to keep their quadruple hopes alive.

This sense of optimism was punctured with a javelin just 30 seconds later as Kristoffer Ajer dropped to the turf after a collision with Kalvin Phillips. Physios went across to treat Ajer as Phillips jumped to his feet and it soon became clear that Ajer was not in a good place. Sure enough Ajer was unable to continue and headed straight down the tunnel once the physios had helped him to his feet. Having already made all of their changes this awful turn of bad luck left Brentford with the unenviable task of seeing out the final 15 minutes of the match with 10 men and already losing 1-0.

Within minutes of this awful event for the hosts came one of far more glorious proportions. From nowhere Brentford were level. The Bees were down to 10 men, but out of nothing they managed to draw themselves back into the match. Mbeumo advanced on the right and when he made the wrong choice of pass the ball bounced off the Leeds defender he had been aiming for and fell to the feet of Wissa. He stood the ball up to the back post where Canos had engineered for himself the freedom of the 8 yard line to nod the ball back across goal and sneak it into the net by the right hand post.

My joy at this unexpectedly glorious turn of events knew no bounds to the point that I completed missed the return of the Bees bad luck in the aftermath of the leveller. All I knew at this point was that Canos had scored the equaliser for Brentford with just 13 minutes left of the match and at a time when no-one expected it.

It took me a full 8 minutes before I noticed that something had changed on the pitch for the hosts and then only due to a substitution that Leeds made. The visitors made the change of taking off Sam Greenwood and bringing on Mateusz Klich in his place, but this was not what caught my eye at this point.

In the aftermath of every substitution I do a quick scan of the pitch to double check that the numbers that come up on the fourth official’s board correspond to the players that have changed places with each other. In the process of doing this scan I realised that I had only been able to count 9 players on the pitch for Brentford. I double, triple and quadruple checked my count before I could be definitively sure that Brentford were indeed down to just 9 players for at least the final 5 minutes. I was so perplexed by this development that I asked the fans around me to double check my maths. It was only when they confirmed that Brentford were indeed down to 9 that I worked out who the difference was.

Canos was no longer on the pitch and neither I nor those who double checked the numbers for me had any idea why. The rumour that I collected from other fans who had been further down the stands, on my way to the bus stop after the match, was that Canos had received 2 yellow cards within about 60 seconds of each other. It appeared that Canos had been given the first yellow for taking his shirt off as part of his goal celebration, then his second just a minute later for steaming into a tackle on the far touchline.

Whatever the truth of how Canos collected his red card the fact remained that Brentford would now have to finish the match with just 9 players on the pitch.

I also took the chance to check the scores around the grounds as the season entered it’s final 5 minutes and saw that City had staged the most inconceivable of comebacks to lead Villa 3-2 at the Etihad to set themselves on the path to their 4th title in the past 5 Premier League seasons. Given my Liverpool leanings this was the last news I wanted to hear at this point.

Back in west London the game had ticked into the final 5 minutes with Brentford now 2 players lighter than their opponents and just trying to hold on till half-time with the 1-1 scoreline still intact. Leeds were pushing for the winner that would guard their survival against a last minute equaliser from the hosts at Turf Moor.

The visitors came close to that winner in the penultimate minute of the 90 as Harrison broke through the Bees defensive lines and into the box. He laid the ball off to the supporting Rodrigo who guided the ball mere inches over the bar. The expectation rose to neurotic levels in the away end as Rodrigo let the shot fly only to come crashing down like an exploded space shuttle. As a home fan this was glorious to experience, but things were about to take a turn to the dark side for me and all other home fans.

The fourth official somehow managed to scrape together 5 minutes of added time at the end of the match and I’m still trying to work out how they found so much of it. Leeds used this time far more productively than the hosts. Harrison was once again at the heart of things for the visitors, advancing to the edge of the box and launching a shot high over the bar. It looked to me like a clear goal kick but the ref took a different view of things and gave Leeds a corner instead.

I still don’t understand how that could possibly have been a corner, but Leeds won’t care why they got it as it was from this set piece that they scored the winner. The ball flew out to the edge of the box and all I saw of it then was that it turned on a dime and smashed into the back of the net. I had no idea who had scored it at this point and the wild celebrations from the players, all zooming over to the away end at light speed to celebrate with their delirious fans, was no more enlightening.

The scenes in the away end were incredible, with yellow flares greeting the entire Leeds 11 as they sprinted to the corner containing their fans. Meslier sprinted the length of the pitch to join in with the party and both Gelhardt and Greenwood road-runnered it round from the dugouts to join in too. The visions of joy etched on the faces of those who had made the long journey down from Yorkshire was infuriating to me having just seen my team lose a point to a set-piece that I was certain should never have been given. Of course I understood why the away fans were descending into bedlam, their team had just secured the win that ensured that no matter what Burnley did now they were still staying up, but I can’t deny it was really testing my patience to watch their party unfold.

The goal hit the back of the net within 60 seconds of the start of the added 5 minutes it was also the last act of the game. The ref blew for full-time as soon as the Bees had kicked off again and the party kicked off again in the away end. Half an hour later the party was still going and not just in the away end as it quickly became clear that there were infiltrators in the home end. The stewards and security people were so slow to respond to the gloating fans in the wrong end, only stepping in as things began to boil over between the infiltrators and a couple of irate home fans who hadn’t been able to get tickets for family members to join them for this game.

The true home fans in the home ends where asked over the tannoy to remain in their seats as the team will be out once the Leeds players have left the pitch for a lap on honour in recognition of a successful season. With that announcement at the back of my mind I just wanted the Leeds players and fans gone. Yes they’d just pulled off an incredible great escape with a final second winner that secured their safety and in their place I’d want to celebrate for the next 3 days, I wasn’t in their place and I just wanted them out of my stadium now.

Once the away end was finally cleared out the Bees players emerged from the tunnel for their lap of honour but with the performance they had put in today the home stands were a little more swiss cheese than they otherwise ought to have been. It was still a great feeling to be able to applaud the first Brentford team to successfully maintain their Top Division status in more than three-quarters of a century.

I didn’t get leave the stadium until 6:24pm when the game had finished at 5:45pm and to stay that long after the final whistle was crazy for me but also a fitting way to bring to a close a season that I have truly enjoyed. Looking back on the season I have seen some incredible matches, the 3-3 draw against Liverpool and 4-1 win at Stamford Bridge being stand-outs for me. I have also seen some awful bore-fests but those have been on offer more in my travels to new grounds around the country.

Brentford have had an incredible season and I am looking forward to seeing how they manage to avoid the second season syndrome. The biggest hope I have for the Bees summer business is that they hold onto the services of Christian Eriksen and add to their options up-front.

The new season starts a week earlier than last season, in just 11 weeks time, but for me that is currently far too far away to expunge the memory of this awful end to the 2021/22 season. So this blog will be keeping going with the Women’s Euros in July. Between now and then I will be blogging about any cool developments in the football world that pique my interest. See you for those soon.

Right, so the final day of the Premier League season is just 2 days away and I’m here to break down exactly what’s on the line at both ends of the table. Let’s start down at the bottom where the equation is far simpler than at the top.

Norwich and Watford are already condemned to spend next season in the Championship and have been for some time, but the question of who will finish bottom of the table remains unanswered. The Canaries will start the final day on 22points, with the Hornets just a point ahead of them on 23.

Theoretically this should mean that all Norwich have to do to avoid finishing in 20th is get a better result at home to Tottenham than Watford can manage away at Stamford Bridge, but it’s not quite that simple. Their goal difference, an abysmal -56, is so much worse than Watford’s, a still abysmal -42, that only a win will do for them. Any other result on their final home Premier League game, for at least 15 months, will mean that Watford can sneak 19th place even when they lose at Stamford Bridge.

That goal difference disparity is not down to the Norwich defence being far leakier than Watford’s as they had conceded 79 goals compared to 75 for the Hornets. The difference is solely down to the East Anglian’s inability to put the ball in the net. A return of just 23 goals from 37 games is abominable and 10 worse than the next worst record of 33 goals, shared by Watford and Burnley. Though an explanation of their profligacy is not easy to ascertain as, in Teemu Pukki they have a player with a proven record of scoring huge amounts of goals in previous seasons. The lack of back-up scorers around him has perhaps been their downfall and if they want to avoid becoming the new yo-yo team then brining in fellow finishers to support their talisman may be the way to go.

For the record I have absolutely no faith that either of teams will get any points on the final day as they are both facing teams starting the day in the top 4. Chelsea will have the home advantage on their side and Tottenham still need points to secure 4th place, more on this later. So I don’t see either London team suffering a shock result against the standout whipping boys of the league this season.

The true drama at the bottom is in the face-off between Leeds and Burnley to avoid joining those dropping through the trap door. They start the day level on points and so whoever gets the better result on the final day will stay up. The biggest curveball is what happens if both of them secure the same result on the final day. If Burnley lose against the newly minted Newcastle and Leeds are unable to squeeze anything out of their final day visit to a Bee’s team in electric late season form, who goes down then?

The simple answer to that is Leeds United. Their goal difference of -38 is so much worse than the Clarets (-18) means that all Burnley have to do is match their result against a flying Brentford team to send them down. Second season syndrome is a hugely over cliched concept, but it seems that Leeds may be the latest victims of it.

The job of securing their survival has been made harder for Leeds by the fact they are finishing up by travelling to a Brentford team in electric form, taking 16 points in their last 7 games. Not the opposition they would have chosen when they desperately need to clinch their first win since a 3-0 win away from home against a Watford side that was already spiralling down the relegation plug hole.

One nugget of hope for the men from Yorkshire is that Burnley will be facing the new superpower from Tyneside that has powered themselves away from the relegation fight since their injection of Saudi cash in January. Newcastle are that team and they have had an excellent second half of the season. They will be looking to finish their season on a high, with a top half finish still possible, to ensure they can attract the best players possible for their push to create a football dynasty from next season.

Burnley will also have to face this final day juggernaut without a suspended Matt Lowton available to feature in their defence after he picked up a straight red card in the 91st minute of their Thursday evening draw at Aston Villa on Thursday. They are expected to be able to welcome James Tarkowski back into their back line though and the best news of all for the Clarets is that they have their fate in their own hand going into a home match on the final day.

If you had offered that deal to Clarets fans at the start of the season I don’t doubt they would have taken it and it’s certainly far better than the spot Leeds fans find themselves in. Having to rely on your opponents dropping points at home as well as needing to beat an in-form team on their own patch on the final day to stay up is not a position any team would want to find themselves in and one I don’t believe they will find their way out of.

Burnley always seem to find a way to stay up and I think they will again this season. Leeds will join Watford and Norwich in dropping down to the championship for next season, with Fulham and Bournemouth already guaranteed to be coming the other way.

Now that we have the scenarios at the bottom all ironed out, lets shift our attention up to the top 7 teams where we have two showdowns for European Qualification and the epic title fight to straighten out.

The teams that will qualify for Europe are all locked in going into the final day, but who qualifies for which competition is where the unknowns rear their ugly heads. The showdown between Manchester United and West Ham United will see the winner qualify for the Europa League next season, with the loser consigned to the Europa Conference League.

Man U are the team in the box seat in this fight for 6th place, holding a 2 point lead over the Hammers. A point away at Selhurst Park will not be enough for them to hold this position if the Hammers can crush the Seagulls on the south coast and once again it’s goal difference that provides the wrinkle in the plan. The Red Devil’s goal difference of just +1 pales into insignificance next to the +11 that the Hammer’s possess. As such anything but a win against Viera’s wounded Eagles, who will be looking to show their home support that they are not limping over the line after throwing away a 2-0 half time lead at Goodison Park on Thursday.

That comeback secured the Toffees survival for another season and congratulations to them for that, but it was unfortunate for Man U as it gives Palace something to fight for on the final day. Any slip up from the North-Westerners on their trip to London will give the Hammers the chance to leapfrog them in the table and secure the Europa League spot for next season with a win on the South Coast.

Their fate is out of their hands though and with Brighton having beaten Man United 4-0 at home two weeks ago they have shown they can produce big results in front of their home fans. The Seagulls will not be completely on the beach themselves either as they need a win to secure a top 10 finish. That may not sound like a huge incentive for a team to give it their all and I don’t feel it will be enough for Brighton to get anything out a Hammers team with the momentum of a draw against the imperious Manchester City behind them coming into this one.

If Hammers do get the win then whether or not it is enough to grab that Europa League place rests on which Man U team turn up at Selhurst Park. Given how inconsistent Man U have been this season I am expecting them to lose to their match and a Hammer’s win to secure the Londoners that coveted Europa League qualification place.

In the next battle on the cards for the final day the Europa League place is the consolation prize, with the Champions League qualification place what is now coveted. The teams going for this gravy train position are the teams of the intense North London derby, Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur.

Spurs are the ones with the upper-hand in this particular derby fight because, as noted previously, they play bottom of the table Norwich on the final day. Furthermore, they currently hold a 2 point advantage over their deadly rivals and they hold the goal difference advantage over them by +24 to +9. All of this means that they don’t even need to win at Carrow Road to secure the Champions League spot. Baring a shock of truly seismic proportions thought Spurs will win this one and turn the match at the Emirates into a dead rubber.

Arsenal’s opponents at that match at the Emirates are an Everton team fresh off the joy of an incredible second half comeback on Thursday that secured their top flight status for next season. This brilliant win will have given the Toffee’s a boat load of momentum to take into the final day and even though they no longer need to win this one the joy that must be filling their souls after that result may push them over the line here. The Gunners will hope that the Toffees return to type instead and turn in one of the atrocious away performances that have plagued their long road to survival.

From my perspective though the match at the Emirates will count for nothing because I don’t see any scenario where Spurs screw up against Norwich and open the door to Arsenal. I fully expect that Spurs will qualify for the Champions League at the expense of Arsenal and steal the joy of celebrating St. Totteringham’s day away from their rivals.

There is no doubt where the biggest story of the final day lies though and that is in the title fight as Jurgen Klopp’s incredible Liverpool side attempt to pull off the impossible Quadruple. To win all four of the biggest competitions open to English teams would be an unprecedented feat, but if anyone can win it this Liverpool team are the ones who might. The team standing in their way are domestic powerhouses, Manchester City.

Back in January Liverpool were 14 points behind their title rivals in the table, but with every week that has passed their insane run of form, going unbeaten in the 5 months since, has seen them close the gap to just a single point going into the final day. Their swing at the title appeared to have slipped through their fingers 2 Saturdays ago, 7th May, when they were held to a home draw by Spurs only to be kept at their fingertips by Man City failing to complete their second half comeback at the London Stadium and having to settle for just a draw.

Liverpool will be hoping that Mahrez missing an 86th minute penalty that would’ve won the game and the title for City is an omen of what is to come on Sunday. City will be confident of getting the win they need to secure the title though, as they will have the vociferous backing of the partisan home support on Sunday against an Aston Villa team that had to fight till the final second to carve a draw from their match against relegation-threatened Burnley on Thursday evening.

Their draw against West Ham last Sunday does simplify the equation for City though as it leaves them with the knowledge that their fate is in their own hands, win against Villa and the title is theirs. Liverpool fans will know that all they can really count on is the Reds beating Wolves at Anfield on the final day, but they will be keeping an eye on proceedings at the Etihad and will be looking for a favour from a club legend.

Steven Gerrard is the Aston Villa manager as they travel to the Etihad for this crucial day in history. With many Liverpool fans confident of their chances in the Champions League final next weekend the Premier League title missing link in the Quadruple and having your ex-captain, the man who carried your team on his back for many years, in the dugout against the team you need to drop points on the final day can only be a good thing from their point of view.

Their will also be a Oil Tanker’s worth of personal motivation for Stevie G to get something out of this match. He was part of the Liverpool team that missed out on the league title by 2 points to Man City in 2013/14 and, in a fair few people’s short sighted eyes, his slip against Chelsea is seen as the main reason why that title challenge failed. So to have all that emotional weight resting on the result of that title fight having crushed his soul for the past 8 years, now having the chance to expunge that trauma from his soul is an opportunity that, many Liverpool fans will hope, is too good to let slip through his fingers.

Whilst Manchester City are the obvious call to win the title, as any team that has it in their own hands on the final day at home to a team that played their last game just 72 hours ago should be. I can’t deny that I would love to see Stevie G’s Villa get something from the match whilst Liverpool skittle through a Wolves team that is limping over the line and for Liverpool to win the title and the Quadruple.

The euphoria that I would feel at that fairy-tale sequence of events would be utterly undeniable but with my logical hat on and looking at what is realistic I can’t see City messing it up on the final day in front of their own fans. I hope with all my heart and soul that I am proved wrong on this, my words here proving to be a curse on City, but I predict that Manchester City will win their game and the title decapitating Liverpool’s dreams of immortality just one match short of the finish.

Liverpool may have to make do with just the 3 trophies for their Victory Parade through town and right past my front door on Sunday 29th May. Though the fact that winning 3 trophies would be seen as a disappointment shows just how incredible this current Liverpool team are. They are written into history no matter how things go for them on Sunday but they have the chance to own football history if things all go their way and I for one want to see that come to pass.

Sunday 15th May 2022, Premier League, Goodison Park, Everton vs Brentford

The weekend had started well for the teams of Merseyside as Liverpool secured their second title of the season on Saturday by winning their first FA Cup under Klopp, defeating Chelsea on penalties under the arch as they had done to win the League Cup.

The early league results on Sunday all went the way Merseyside hoped they would. For the Cup Double winners their weekend was improved further as West Ham United held on to secure a 2-2 home draw against Manchester City to allow Liverpool to take their title challenge to the final day, as long as they beat Southampton on their own turf tonight. City even missed a late penalty that would have won them not just the match, but the title too and now they face Steven Gerrard’s Villa on the final day knowing that a loss to the Liverpool legend’s team will hand the title to the team he carried for so many years.

Results early on Sunday suited Everton too with first Spurs defeating Burnley 1-0 in the lunchtime kick-off, due to a questionable penalty call. Then Leeds could only draw against Brighton. Though the Yorkshire men had been minutes away from losing before a 92nd minute equaliser. These results meant that Lampard’s Toffees knew that winning this match would secure their safety.

Their recent form had put them in this position with a healthy return of 11 points from their last 6 matches, including getting a win and a draw out of their last 2 matches. Both of these were away from home and will have provided the home fans with a ground swell of confidence. Their home form has been excellent all season and this violent upswing in their previously dreadful away form may be just what they need to secure the points to keep them in the Premier League.

For their part the Bees had already secured their own safety with a run of brilliant form coming into this one, ending with a 3-0 home victory over Southampton last weekend. The Bees had only lost once since the start of April, in the Old Trafford abomination that thankfully I was unable to source a ticket for. This awesome run of form was sparked by the 4-1 destruction of Chelsea at Stamford Bridge and even with safety now assured it shows no sign of letting up with the momentum behind them.

The visitors also had the fact that Everton had not won 3 successive Sunday league games in their history and that was the record they were hoping to change in this one. Brentford were further motivated by the chance to both avenge their 4-1 FA Cup loss at this ground earlier in the season and secure a league double over their hosts.

Their motivation was more than match by the Everton fans that had arrived early to the ground and crammed into Goodison Road to witness the arrival of the home team coaches like sardines attempting to induce claustrophobia. There was so little room to move by 2:30pm that it made rush hour on the Tube feel like taking a dip in the Siwa Oasis in the deserted Sahara Desert. If Everton do go down it certainly won’t be down to a lack of fan support as the whole of L4 has been galvanised to support their team in the fight of their life.

The support of the passionate Everton fans was a beauty to behold and it was difficult for me not to become carried away in the tide of optimism. Many times I had to stop a home chant from slipping out of my mouth. I managed it but it was close and only the banter from the home fans kept me in the pocket as the only Bee floating in a blue Toffee sea.

There were chants, flares, horns and even an old style rattle sounding as the atmosphere built to a crescendo every couple of minutes only to surpass that one every few minutes till the coach arrived 20 minutes later than the normal 90 minutes before kick-off. In the mean-time I took the opportunity to discuss their team’s predicament with the home fans all around me.

They shared major agreements on many points. Firstly that the recent recruitment by the club had been abysmal, with one fan even going as far as to say that it was “£500million spent on shite”. That may be a little unfair on the team but there was certainly a grain of truth behind the comment that a team who has spent so much shouldn’t be scrambling to avoid relegation with just 7 days left of the season.

Many fans blamed their current plight on what they felt was the doomed appointment of Rafa Benitez as manager last summer, but the counter point was offered that the board should take far more blame than Benitez. They pointed out that even when Benitez was on the brink of being given his marching orders the board allowed Lucas Digne to leave the club due to his strained relationship with the outgoing manager.

The talk then moved on to their run-in and their chances of beating the drop. A very talkative young lady stated that she would be extremely confident of staying up if they were playing Arsenal at home on the final day, but as it’s away she’s not so sure. Another lady standing nearby replied to the question of ‘what if it comes down to the final day against Arsenal?’ with “I really hope it doesn’t come to that”. The anxiety over their away form was palpable and that tension through the crowd makes me worried for their hopes if it comes down to that.

The atmosphere hit the zenith of it’s brilliance as the coach arrived at the players entrance and the road was shrouded in a blanket of blue flares and no-one could actually see the coach till it began to move down the road to clear the stadium and get back on it’s way back to town. This took 15 minutes though despite multiple tannoy announcements to clear the road and the help of 3 police motorbike outriders and 6 police horses. As the coach finally cleared the road the clouds broke so I made my way in through the turnstiles on the Bullens Road side of the stadium like Usain Bolt in his prime.

Once safely inside Goodison I was surprised to find that the screens were not showing the end of the Leeds-Brighton match, the result of which would have a crucial bearing on Everton’s survival hopes. Instead the screens were showing the final 20 minutes of Man City’s visit to the London Stadium and the stewards were glued to it. Perhaps they were secret Red’s but all I know it that they didn’t move till the final whistle was blown and then they used all that saved energy to whizz out of sight at the speed of The Weeping Angels.

I took this as my cue and headed up to my seat on level 2 of the Bullens Road stand in the tiny visitors section of the stadium. Brentford’s league allocation paling in comparison to the full stand they were given for the FA Cup tie. Just the solitary steward and a flimsy fence separated me and the expectant home fans, but our interest was drawn to the players warming up on the pitch as we pretended not to notice each other’s existence.

The programme, picked up as I turned onto Bullens, with it’s glossy back cover was worse than useless when the tannoy whispered each teams starting 11’s into the ether. So I was reduced to noting down the starters numbers onto the miniscule empty space on page 7. This made my note taking extremely difficult and added further credence to my belief that Brentford should run a masterclass, for the rest of the Premier League, on how to produce a proper programme. Not that a decent programme could compensate for the lack of volume on the tannoy, reducing me to reading the numbers for each team off the back of the players shirt as they were presented to the stand on the far side.

Everton started the match firmly on the front foot cheered on by the thunderous home support. With this considerable backing it took the home team just 50 seconds to secure the matches first corner. Granted this could only be sliced acres wide of the left post on the volley from the edge of the box, but it served notice to the visitors that they were in for a match against a team that weren’t going down without a fight.

The hosts heavy metal start to the match saw them come agonisingly close to the opening goal within 180 seconds of kick-off. The gilt-edged chance fell to Anthony Gordon as he was played in to space in the centre of the box and just 8 yards from the target. He shot straight at David Raya and could only watch as the ball bounced towards goal and skimmed a mere whisker wide of the left hand post. Home fans at the far end of the ground broke out in raucous cheers thinking that their team had taken the lead and thus it was cue the glorious ridiculing from the away fans when they finally worked out what had actually happened. The cheers were choked out in their throats.

Brentford where in their full banana away kit, but it took till the 6th minute for them to show their skins. Eriksen slipped a freekick from the right to the near post, where his rising banana teammates dropped the ball onto the roof of the net. Pickford set the hosts on the break that ended with Richarlison sending his effort into the heavens from 10 yards out.

Everton did finally make their early pressure pay though and it came through a mistake they forced in the visitor’s defence. Mads Bech lunged across to cut out Gordon in full flow near the left touchline to give away a cheap as chips free-kick, picking up the game’s first yellow card. The free-kick was slung into the area and Richarlison flapped a leg at it making just enough contact to confuse the visiting defence and direct the ball untouched into the far corner of the net, Mads Bech unable to adjust his legs in time to clear it off the line.

A goal from nothing and Everton had the lead their play warranted with just 10 minutes on the clock. There was no choking out the home fans cheers this time as a wall of noise crashed down onto the pitch. This looked to knock the stuffing out of the Bees players for the next 8 minutes of play as Everton dominated possession without ever looking likely to add to their lead.

It looked like the hosts were just biding their time as they kept the ball and probed for the opening that would allow them to sneak in and double their lead. All this Everton dominance was dealt a Ned Stark style death blow in the 19th minute though as they screamed for a penalty at one end before getting a defender sent off at the other.

Richarlison went down under the close attentions of Kristoffer Ajer in the Brentford penalty area and as the majority of the home players and all the home fans howled for a penalty that never came the visitors broke. The break was rifled upfield tasking Toney to race Jarrad Branthwaite for the loose ball. Toney won the race and in his desperation to prevent Brentford’s talismanic striker taking a shot at goal he scythes the striker down at the ankles. As he tried to protest his innocence, with his teammates alternating between backing him up and pleading for the penalty, the ref reached into his pocket and produced the red card that would change the course of the match.

Branthwaite was judged to be the last defender and thus he had to go. Everton had reached for the win by any means button and brushed the self-destruct button instead. Eriksen could only guide the freekick wide of the left post from the edge of the area, but with the man advantage it now felt like only a matter of time until the visitors drew themselves level.

With the hosts now a man light the match became a training session of attack vs defence as the Bees poured forward at pace at every opportunity and Everton had to resort to their Merseyside Derby tactics in a desperate attempt to cling onto their lead for the next 70 minutes. Pickford led the time-wasting way for the hosts by taking as much time as the ref would allow over every goal-kick for the rest of the half. His team-mates joined the effort in the 27th minute as they clattered into both Toney and Mathias Jensen within seconds of each other in midfield.

This dogged defensive action almost fell to pieces in the 28th minute though as a hopeful ball down the right channel found it’s way to Jensen via a couple of extremely lucky deflection. Under pressure he tried a cheeky chip and though it left Pickford grasping the air it also cleared the bar and was left resting on the roof of the net. The Everton keeper dutifully taking a metric Jurassic era of time to punt the goal-kick as far up the pitch as he can.

Rico Henry created another brilliant chance for Brentford to level the match with a brilliant drive down the right as the match ticked past it’s first half hour. His cut back made it to Christian Norgaard but he sliced his shot across the keeper and it skimmed the paint off the left hand post on it’s way behind for a goal-kick. This time it was my turn to have the cheers choke out in my throat as it looked to me like it had sneaked in for a second. I was up floating above the stadium for a few glorious moments before the cheers in the home stands brought me crashing back to earth.

A minute after that unceremonious rollercoaster my disappointment turned to anger as Richarlison tried to run through 2 Bees players and when that didn’t work he fell to the grass like he’d just been hit by a 747 going full speed. The fact that he was back on his feet after a 30 second physio appointment, but only after Bees had broken up their attack to put the ball out in a show of sportsmanship, did little to lift my mood. Even so I did not join in with the chants of ‘Let him die’ from my fellow Bee’s fans, though I did join the chants of ‘cheat, cheat, cheat’ when they struck up around me.

Brentford broke down Everton’s defensive wall in the 38th minute and smuggled in the equaliser. The immense Eriksen slapped a corner across the box and when it was headed back into the box Yoane Wissa leaped higher than anybody else around him to knock the ball free onto the left hand side. He landed well and drove the ball to the by-line. Then he proceeded to unleash a thunderbolt that flashed past everyone and into the net to tie things up at 1-1.

It looked to me like it had gone straight in off Wissa’s boot but the screen showed a little own goal signal next to Seamus Coleman’s name. I’m sure the Everton captain would be only too happy for it to go down as Wissa’s goal but alas the history books will show it as another tap of the self-destruct button from the hosts.

Fresh from getting the equaliser Brentford almost went ahead with their second goal in 4 minutes when Jensen took the ball all the way to the right-side by-line before whipping a ball across for Rico to connect with at the back post. He connected well on the turn and volleyed it just a hair’s-breadth over the bar. The collective sigh of relief in the home stands mixed with the sigh of disappointment in the away end.

These sighs pushed Brentford on to attack once more as the half ticked into its penultimate minute. Eriksen was at the heart of the visitors efforts once more as he sent a raking 45 yarder upfield to a Toney who was steaming into the box. The resulting header was easy for Pickford to collect, but Toney was back trying his luck within seconds. This time he flashed a lightning bolt across the goal from the right and Pickford had to be at his best, leaping to his right to punch the ball clear of the box.

Then the hosts hit their visitors with a sucker punch to the kidneys in the 3 minutes of injury time tacked on to the end of the half. Launching the ball up into the box Richarlison jumped for it near the penalty spot. When he missed the ball he used the fact that there were two Bees players within 5 yards of him to transform a bad landing into a penalty shout. Going down like he’d taken a roundhouse kick to the face from an MMA fighter. The red bought what was being sold and Everton had a chance to retake the lead from the spot in the dying moments of the half.

Once the penalty had been awarded Richarlison sprung back to his feet like a jack-in-the-box to slide the ball high to Raya’s right, as the keeper dove low to his left, to restore Everton’s one-goal lead. To say that this left the away support apoplectic with rage would be to undersell the point immensely because there were truly no words to describe just how angry certain members of the away support were. The ref did nothing to abate this anger heading into half-time by allowing Everton to continue an attack seconds later when Norgaard was poleaxed in midfield.

The away fans that weren’t cursing the ref or loudly booing Richarlison’s every touch from here on out spent half-time questioning just where VAR was for that penalty shout. I will be one of the Bees fans pondering that question for a very long-time. The best that my conversations with other away fans at half-time could come up with was ‘perhaps it was tea-break time at Stockley Park’.

Thomas Frank spent the break far more productively than that though as he made a substitution to help his team make the breakthrough to draw themselves level once again and hopefully take them to the winning goal. His roll of the dice was to remove Mads Bech from the action and send Vitaly Janelt on in his place. This necessitated a change of formation to 3 at the back and provided Brentford with another extra man in midfield to help them push home their numerical advantage and hopefully provide them with the supply to their forwards that would turn their dominance into the much needed goals.

Aware that they were in for a torrid time in the second half Everton started their timewasting this half before it had even got underway, waiting to emerge from their dressing room until the visiting players had already spent minutes on the pitch and were raring to go. Anxious to make their hosts pay for making them wait Brentford set up camp in the Everton half within seconds of kick-off, though this almost backfired on them when Everton broke out in the 48th minute. The hosts hoofed the ball up field on the left but when the ball was slid through the corridor of uncertainty there was no-one in blue in position to turn it home.

Having survived that scare Brentford got straight back to the task of wearing down the granite wall of home players blocking their route to the equaliser. Jensen floated a cross to the back post where it dropped onto the head of Rico Henry, but he was unable to get any power on the header and it was easily hacked clear. The ball only got as far as the edge of the box though, where it was picked up by Wissa and he let rip with a firecracker of a shot. It took a huge deflection on route to goal but despite this the ref gave the hosts a goal-kick, that Pickford duly wasted as much time as possible in taking.

Timewasting and wrecking play with cynical tackles were the main weapons that the Toffees used to disrupt the build-up of Bees attacks and hold onto the lead. This was doing a brilliant job of transforming me into a giant green rage monster in the away end, but when you need to convert that lead to a win at full-time and you have to play 70 minutes of the match a player light what would you do?

Whatever your approach to that predicament would be the tactics that Lampard’s men had chosen seemed to be working for them as the game limped it’s flowless way towards the hour mark. Brentford’s probing was failing to crack a hole in the granite despite the hosts presenting them with a perfect chance to do so in the 57th minute. Iwobi came in hard on Rico as he advanced on the left and sent him crashing to the ground like a 500 year oak tree being felled for tables. Eriksen curled it to the far post, but Pickford was able to adjust and get himself behind the ball. When he dropped it free in the 6 yard box, giving the self destruct button another tap, none of the attendant Bees players got get the decisive touch and the defence were able to clear it away.

Seeing his team struggle to find a way through the granite Thomas Frank decided to dip into his bench options again on the hour mark and go full send in order to find a way to destroy the granite and grab some goals. He took off central defender Kristoffer Ajer and send on the creative force of attacking midfielder Josh DaSilva in his place. DaSilva’s mercurial creative talent had been crucial to Brentford’s promotion last season, but he had been unable to contribute much to the team this season due to injury.

This substitution did the trick as Everton were unable to cope with the overwhelming attacking force now on display from the visitors. The granite crumbled in the 62nd minute from a very cheap corner that did not need to be given away. Eriksen fed the ball to the near post where Wissa ghosted in to flick it past the flailing arms of Pickford and draw the Bees level. The giant green rage monster inside was vapourised by this and in its place came a level of Euphoria that had yet to be discovered by human kind.

The joy coursing through my veins was so incredibly intoxicating that I was not able to follow the action on the pitch for the next few minutes. In those few minutes Brentford took the lead and the only thing I can recall about this 3rd goal for the Bees was that it came from the head of Rico Henry.

For such a turnaround to take place in front of my eyes was incredible and had the opposite effect in the home stands to the one that it spurred in me. Conceding 2 goals in 120 seconds stunned the home fans into a deathly silence fit only for a morgue or the shock of being told you have a terminal disease and the prognosis awful. The home fans had to deal with the shock of going from leading 2-1 and being on their way to the win that confirms their survival to being 3-2 behind, with their survival hopes being back in the balance in less time than it takes to make a decent cup of tea.

Brentford were now dominating proceedings and looked likely to add the 4th goal that their fans were chanting for, ‘we want 4’, with every attack. It was in this desperate time for the hosts that Lampard was finally convinced to reach for his substitutes and when he did it was for a double. He replaced Andre Gomes with Jonjoe Kenny and then signalled his acceptance that all the hosts could do now was limit the damage by removing their greatest attacking threat, Anthony Gordon, from the fray and bringing on Demarai Gray on to replace him.

Having taken the lead and with the hosts substitutions helping to repair the granite of their defensive wall Thomas Frank made a substitution of his own in the 76th minute. He decided on giving Yoane Wissa a well-deserved rest and sent on Mads Roerslev in his place to allow a return to a more usual formation. This signalled a more relaxed Bees approach to the last 14 minutes now they had the lead their dominance deserved.

They came agonisingly close to a 4th goal in the 77th minute as intricate play between Rico and Toney created space on the left. The former’s cut back into the area was blocked at the near post from where it bounced towards goal and snuck just a whisper wide of goal. This would be the last clear-cut chance for either team until the final 5 minutes of the match as both teams took a break, seeming happy to let the clock run down.

The new relaxed pattern of play was brought to an abrupt end in the 84th minute by another flurry of action on the hosts bench. Lampard chose to withdraw his captain, Seamus Coleman, from play and send Solomon Rondon in his place. What the Everton manager hoped to achieve with this substitution will never be known as the new addition was not long for the match. It was a case of ’84th minute Rondon, 88th minute Rondoff’ as Solomon decided to take the self-destruct button and pummel it to within an inch of its life.

Rondon earnt his red card with a flying tackle on Rico near the touchline far right under my nose. He was completely out of control as he connected with Rico with both set of studs. The ref had no other choice but to give him a straight red and send him trudging down the tunnel for an early bath, despite the protests of the home fans.

That rush of blood to the head meant that Everton would have to finish the match with just 9 men and put the final kibosh on any hopes of snatching a last second equaliser. Their only hope now was to hold on and hope the scoreline didn’t get any worse.

Brentford should have made it worse in the final minute of the regulation 90 when a chip to the back post by DaSilva was met by the forehead of a wide-open Rico. He nodded it back into the 12 yard box where Eriksen met it and curled it towards the right hand corner of the net, but there was a covering defender on the line to whack it clear.

The second red card for their team and the clear lack of any way back into the match led to an impromptu fire-drill in the home stands as the fans left their seats faster than a rat leaves a sinking ship. I have no doubt that they will be back in their droves to cheer their team on in their critical battle against Crystal Palace on Thursday, where a win will once again secure their safety.

As for the away fans, we began to be ushered out of the stadium the second the ref blew for full-time on our 3-2 win. The stewards were not in the mood to let us stay and bask in the victory, but the one pushing me out the exit at least managed a smile when I told him not to worry as Leeds visit us on the final day and with the mood we’re in there’s no way they’ll win. Before the away fans were forced out of our though we did manage a couple of rounds of a chant that I’m sure will be ringing round the Brentford Community Stadium on Sunday.

‘Christian Eriksen, we want you to stay’

I will be heading back to London to soak in that match as Brentford look to end the season on a high and Leeds look to do what Everton could not today, secure the win that keeps them in the Premier League for another season. Will they succeed where Everton could not? Join me next week to find out

Monday 2nd May: League 2: The Peninsula Stadium: Salford City vs Mansfield Town

To complete my bank holiday weekend trilogy of matches I made the long journey out to Salford’s Peninsula stadium, in the millionaire’s suburbs north of Manchester, to see if the hosts secure the 3 points they needed to keep themselves in the League 2 play-off picture till the final day.

They started the match in 10th place and 5 points outside the play-off places with just 2 games left. So needed to win both of them and hope others slip up on the final day to make it but whilst the chance is there they were going to go for it. Their task was made difficult however by the fact that their opponents for the day were Mansfield Town, who could secure their play-off place with a win and still had hopes of automatic promotion. A win today for the visitors would put them 3rd going into the final day and leave their fate in their own hands.

The trip I had to make to make the 12:30pm kick-off was quite the odyssey. First I had to make it to Manchester Victoria station, then get on the packed X43 Witchway bus out down a single long road. The bus takes 20 minutes before you get off at Moor Lane and make the final 7 minute walk down a busy country road to the stadium. Seriously, the suburb that houses the Peninsula Stadium is insanely leafy and absolutely the last place that you would ever expect to find a football stadium.

Once I had found my way round to my turnstile on the opposite side of the ground to where I walked up to, thanks to the helpful steward, I fought my way through the crowds and inside to the most bouncing atmosphere I have ever seen at such a low level of English Football. The crowds for this match was incredible and included many Bees fans making use of the early kick-off to enjoy a little extra Greater-Manchester football before hitting up Old Trafford for their evening kick-off. The jealousy was palpable in my soul, but the addition of so many extra fans gave the stadium an atmosphere comparable to Glastonbury in the build up to the headline act on the final day.

Inside the ground there was an awesome old-school feel to things, from the cash only food kiosks to the all terraced stands behind each goal. The lack of any screen at all was a little less charming, but I managed to accurately time things on my phone stopwatch so match action should be perfectly timed. The food on offer at the kiosks was a far more up-market than normal football food though, including the crispy onions that adorned my hotdog, available at normal football prices.

I took up my place in the stand behind the north goal as the teams were finishing their warm-ups. Mansfield Town finishing theirs minutes in advance of their hosts in a show of confidence. Salford showed no sign of being un-nerved by this as they took the field again for kick-off, as the tannoy announced both matchday squads at the precisely perfect speed for me to get them noted down. With Salford in red tops and white shorts and Mansfield decked neck to knee in sky blue, the visitors stood as Salford took the pre-match knee and things were ready to get underway.

Salford had the most on the line for this match and cheered on by a partisan home crowd they took just 90 seconds to take the lead. Jordan Turnbull met a deep slung free kick into the area from the left side with a bullet header at the near-post to direct the ball into the bottom left corner of the goal. Nathan Bishop was left all at sea further back in the box, expecting a floated ball to the back post and could only watch as Salford grabbed the initiative in the match.

Just 3 minutes after taking the lead Salford were gifted a great chance to double their lead. Brandon Thomas-Asante was brought down whilst driving upfield through the centre and the hosts had a freekick on the edge of the box. Given their previous success from a much less enticing position I was fully expecting a gilt-edged chance to be created at the very least, but all the hosts could manage were 2 balls cannoned directly into the wall o allow Mansfield to clear their lines.

Taking momentum from this to gain a foothold in the match Mansfield poured forward in search of an equaliser, but the Salford defensive effort made a fortress of their penalty area right up until the visitors found the way in in the 8th minute. A deep cross made it’s way through the defences to land at the feet of Matty Longstaff at the back post. From where he flicked it back across the keeper Tom King’s body only to see the ball flash just wide of the post.

A minute later it was back to the long range efforts for the visitors as Rhys Oates ballooned one way over the bar from just outside the D. King would have arguably have had it covered if it had been on target, but we will never know for sure.

Having given the hosts the lead Turnbull was back in the thick of the action in the 13th minute, picking up the game’s first yellow card for being milliseconds late with a tackle looking to cut out a Mansfield attack as it progressed towards the box. It was so close that, in my view, giving a foul for it was harsh in the extreme.

Thomas-Asante would be unavailable to help his teammates defend from the freekick as the ref ordered him off the pitch to get treatment for a cut that was seeping blood. Being a player short may have contributed to what happened next as Stephen McLaughlin curled the ball round the ball and into the bottom right corner of the net. Bending it like Beckham against the team he part owns to draw the visitors level.

The decision to award Mansfield the freekick looked even harsher when nothing was given against Oates for holding Theo Vassell in a half-nelson 5 minutes later. The ref hardly helped his stock in the eyes of home fans when he gave Mansfield a freekick on halfway when Longstaff caught himself on the heels. He rose to his feet quickly only to fall straight back to the ground as the host’s Matthew Lund made his way past.

The visitors wasted that freekick but wanted another in the 22nd minute when Salford’s captain Jason Lowe won a sliding 50/50 against Longstaff and ran clear with the ball. This time the ref was not hoodwinked by Longstaff’s slow rise back to his feet. Nor was he fooled by a weak penalty shout for the visitors in the 26th when Oates pushed the ball a little too far ahead of himself, having intercepted a weak goal-kick, then tried to go over the top of the legs that King had withdrawn from the area in question seconds earlier. Oates did get away with a, train to Sheffield, late tackle on Vassell in the 28th minute though with the ref only giving a free-kick and no card.

As the match passed the half-hour match the atmosphere became more and more muted as neither team was able to find the telling ball to set an attack on fire. The play became more timid than cagey, as though both teams were far too scared of making a telling mistake to try and make the telling pass that might give them the lead at half-time in this crucial match.

It took until the 36th minute for either team to mount a concerted effort to snatch the half-time lead and, with the crowd on their side, it is perhaps unsurprising that Salford where the team to put this effort together. Sliding a slide-rule ball through the defence to leave Matt Smith with just the keeper to beat. Bishop was equal to the threat though and pushed Smith wide so that he could only steer his shot into the side-netting. Mansfield were able to break upfield from the resultant corner only for Oates to also find himself forced wide in the area and also send his shot wide at the near post.

These twin chances sparked the game back into life as the match roared into the final 5 minutes of the half. Salford took the momentum of creating the spark to end the half squarely on top, but they were unable to take advantage of their domination of possession and would instead be behind before the ref whistled up on the first 45.

They had their chances to take the lead before conceding though as first Thomas-Asante left fly from the edge of the box. This shot was unable to make it through the forest of legs without nicking a trunk and rebounding clear. Then a cross to the back post flicked off the back of a visiting defender’s head for a corner with 3 minutes of the half left. The away fans were up in arms about the decision, though from my vantage point at the far end it looked to be the right one. They need not have worried too much though as the corner flew harmlessly over the head of everyone in the box and the cross from the other side imitated it before floating behind for a goal-kick.

Having failed to take advantage of those chances Salford were duly punished for their profligacy by the footballing gods in the final minute of the half. Mansfield floated a freekick up to the back post from halfway and as it fell towards it’s spot it struck a Salford hand. The ref wasted no time in pointing to the spot, but to me it looked like the defender’s arms were in a natural position as he looked to gain elevation to connect with a clearing header.

Another harsh call cost Salford though as McLaughlin made no mistake in stroking it low to the keeper’s left to give Mansfield a 2-1 lead as the teams headed in for the break. Simultaneously altering beyond recognition the team talks for both of the managers, who would now have to create their own on the fly. The hosts had been ending the half as the stronger team and looking far more likely to score. A few missed chances and one questionable decision later they were behind and chasing the game to get the win they desperately needed.

Perhaps there was a feeling of quiet resignation among the Salford back office hierarchy though as they used the opportunity of half-time to introduce 10 of the most recent academy graduates to the home support. They were presented as the team’s best hope for next season and I found it doubtful that they would have been presented as such if the management team still felt the current players stood a chance of promotion.

I couldn’t tell you a single one of their names however, as I spent the majority of half-time diving into the programme I had picked up from opposite the turnstile. The seller was directly in front of me as I passed through that entrance and it would have been rude not to buy myself one, particularly with this being Salford’s final home game of the season.

Mansfield were out for the second half before their hosts, in another show of confidence that failed to un-nerve the Salford players. There were no half-time substitutes for either team as their managers both put their faith in their team attacking towards their own fans to help raise the level and suck the ball into the net this half.

The half certainly started off brightly with some creative attacking play from both teams creating chances galore and providing a lovely change of pace from the majority of the first half. Mansfield set this chance extravaganza in motion with a free-kick into the box from the left touchline just 2 minutes into the half. It caused a game of header pinball to break out in the box before Salford finally hacked in clear on with their 4th attempt.

The attacks that Salford put together in the first 5 minutes of the half were hampered by a sedate build-up phase that allowed the visitors to get their defence back in order and clear the threat before it turned serious. In the 53rd minute it turned serious and Mansfield couldn’t deal with it. Thomas-Asante decided to forgo the build-up phase and instead fire in an early cross in from the right that caught the defence napping, allowing Lund to spirit in unnoticed and unmarked at the front post to flick it past Bishop at his near post.

Just like that Salford were back on level terms and Thomas-Asante took great pleasure in driving his team forward, tormenting the visiting defenders with every attack. Within a minute of the equaliser he was running free again but this time his cross had too much on it and was cleared simply away for a throw on the far side of the pitch. From this throw a cross was sent in that Mansfield could only deflect behind for a corner. The corner was fed to the near post where Lund won his race against the defence but this time he had to stoop to connect with his header and could only watch as the ball cannoned back off the bar, leaving it shaking like a sapling in a hurricane.

Mansfield were able to tame the ball on the rebound and set themselves on the break. They found space on the right side of the box but King prevented what looked like a certain 3rd for the visitors by kneeling at his near post as the ball ricocheted off his knees and away for a corner. The visitors wasted the corner and Salford were able to break themselves.

Once again finding Thomas-Asante in space but this time his cross sailed inches over the top of Ryan Watson’s despairing leap at the far post. The ball was put back in from the other side and this time it was Thomas-Asante’s chance to see the ball fly just over his leaping head. If the ball had been an inch or so lower it would have certainly been the hosts third as Thomas-Asante was in so much space he could’ve built a national trust property around himself without interfering with a single defender’s personal space.

Lowe finished off the 5 minutes of torment for the visitors with a volley fizzed in from 20 yards that was always rising and ended up missing both high and left of the goal. Worth a try though and it took the visitors attention off Thomas-Asante for a minute or so. A good thing for the hosts as King collected a corner on the hour mark and found the man of the moment with a glorious 60 yard ball to his feet. He advanced down the right wing before squaring for Stephen Kelly who could not finish off this glorious move with a finish befitting it’s majesty. Instead simply poking the ball goalward till it squirmed into the arms of a very grateful Bishop.

Thomas-Asante was not done yet though as he was back creating another chance for the host’s elusive winner just a minute after that chance. This time he chose to cut the ball back to Donald Love, hovering just behind the penalty spot, but again the finishing touch could not be applied. A bouncing shot that got deflected behind for a wasted corner was the ending provided to this move.

By this point of the match Mansfield had been reduced to threatening on the break and they managed to do so just twice through the match’s 60’s. First contriving to utterly waste a freekick just inside the Salford half. Won by George Lapslie driving through the middle at pace. It was also Lapslie that had the second chance for the visitors and coming the closest that they had come to scoring from open play all match. He unleashed a volley from distance with such swerve on it that King stood no chance of stopping it. Unfortunately it was also this mesmerising swerve that guided it millimetres wide of the right-hand post and kept the scores level at 2-2.

With the match entering it’s final 20 minutes both managers decided it was high time to switch things up and looked to provide their team with some new impetus from the bench. It was Mansfield’s Nigel Clough who was first to blink in the 71st minute as he replaced Lucas Atkins with Jordan Bowery. Then 5 minutes later both he and the host’s Gary Bowyer made a change each. Clough removed George Lapslie from the fray, despite his recent chances and sent on Kieran Wallace on in his place.

For his part Bowyer reacted to his team’s recent abject display of profligate finishing by sending on a new striker on, who might be able to finish off just one of the many chances Thomas-Asante was creating. To this end he withdrew Donald Love, sending on veteran striker Ian Henderson to provide the masterclass in finishing his team needed.

Between the first substitution and this later duo Thomas-Asante had a crack at personally providing the finish that Salford needed. He was fed the ball on the left side of the box with his back to goal a mere 8 yards from target. Swivelling on the spot he was unable to get any power behind the shot and watched it dribble its way into Bishop’s gloves.

The game found its way to the 80th minute without further incident though. It became clear that one more chance was all that would be needed to settle one and as the crunch time approached it came down to the question of whose nerves would hold up and which team would collapse under the pressure.

Salford showed signs of nerves in the 81st minute when they dithered so long over a short corner on the right that by the time they finally put the ball into the box neither Henderson or Vassell was expecting it. Subsequently neither of them went for the ball at the near post and the visitors were able to breath a massive sigh of relief watching it go behind for a goal-kick.

Turnbull showed no such nerves 2 minutes later though as he steamed into a tackle on the edge of the box to nick the ball off George Maris as he was shaping to slot the ball away for a Mansfield winner. There were no nerves creeping into Thomas-Asante’s game either as he once again created space for himself, this time on the left wing, before delivering the ball on a silver-platter to Kelly in space 20 yards out. Once again though a splendid saving tackle got in the way of a certain goal, this time Mansfield managed to deflect the ball away for a corner which came to nothing.

Bowyer made his final change to the hosts make-up for the final 5, with Matthew Lund withdrawn for Ash Hunter to be given the chance to carve his name into Salford history. However, with just 3 minutes left it was Henderson who was trying to make sure the name carved was his own with 2 chances within a minute of each other. First trying his luck with a volley at the back-post, off a deep cross from the right, only for the ball to be nabbed off his toes just before he can make contact with the ball. Then again with a spectacular scorpion kick when the recycled ball was crossed in just behind him. Unfortunately for him and the home fans the ball was cleared just in front of the line and the scores remained level pegging as the grandstand ending to the match remained on a knife’s edge.

Clough took one last throw of the dice in the penultimate minute of the 90 by removing his captain, James Perch, from the field and sending on Elliot Hewitt. Mansfield doing their best to hold onto the draw that would leave them in an excellent position to secure play-off football on the final day of the season. They would have 4 minutes of added time to hold on to this result first though and consign Salford to another confirmed season in League 2.

In the first of those added minutes they came close to finding the winner they needed to keep their hopes of automatic promotion in their own hands. Oates advancing through the centre of the Salford half, but Turnbull was on hand to cover and force the ball out for a corner. Then, with time running out in added time, Maris provided a defence splitting ball from the left that could only be parried out into the danger area by King. The ball fell to the feet of Wallace at the back-post but he was unable to sort his feet out in time to tap it home into the empty net and the home fans could breathe again.

Salford had their own chances to win it in added time as well. The first of which came through the irrepressible Thomas-Asante, Mansfield’s tormenter in chief all half, who provided a tempting ball into the right channel where there was no-one in a red shirt ready to tap it in. The final chance for the hosts came in the dying seconds of the match as a cross found Smith unmarked 8 yards out, but he could only direct the ball into Bishop’s arms. Henderson had been lurking behind him ready to tap it into the unguarded net at the back-post if the ball had been left to run through to him. As things panned out though the chance was wasted and seconds later the ref blew for full-time.

Despite battering down the door all half, mainly through the inspirational display of Thomas-Asante, they hosts were unable to find that winning goal and must instead resign themselves to another season in League 2. Mansfield also left this one feeling like an opportunity had been lost as their fate slipped out of their own hands and they would go into the final day of the season knowing that even a win would leave them relying on slip-ups elsewhere to secure them automatic promotion.

Due to a personal commitment I was unable to attend a match on the final day of the League 2 season. Bristol City turned in the result of the decade to secure the final automatic promotion place and thus consign Northampton Town, 3rd going into the final day, to the lottery of the playoffs alongside Mansfield, Port Vale and Swindon Town.

Mansfield finish the season in 7th and facing Northampton in their Play-off semi-finals for a place in the Wembley final. I wish them best of luck but they will need to create a few more chances if they are to gain promotion to League 1.

With the lower league’s seasons all now completed, except the sold out play-off matches, I will be returning to the Premier League for my remaining blogs of the season. I will be attending both of Brentford’s remaining matches this season, starting with their visit to relegation threatened Everton at Goodison park this weekend.

Sunday 1st May: WSL: Walton Hall Park: Everton vs Tottenham Hotspur

I finished off April by sampling a match of huge significance on the final day of the League One season. So for the start of May I took my foot off the gas and put it through the rear window as I visited Walton for my final Women’s match of the WSL season.

Everton were playing host to Tottenham in their final home game of the season and, unlike their Male equivalents, neither team has anything left to play for this season. Everton are well clear of Birmingham City in the singular relegation spot and who will be replaced in the WSL next season by Everton’s Merseyside rivals, Liverpool. Whilst for their part, Spurs were much too far adrift of the top 3 to make any late charge for a place in next season’s Champion’s League. The Women’s Champions League accepting only 3 English teams, as opposed to the 4 for the Men.

With so little resting on the result of this one and with neither team having a record of turning in scintillating attacking football, I was not expecting much for this game. Having cycled to the stadium, to avoid any of the delays that plagued my travel to Hillsborough the day before, it seemed that nature herself was not expecting much from this one either.

Having taken stock of a ground that I have no visited more times than I can count this season, I found an empty seat by the halfway line and settled in ready for kick-off. Before things got underway though I checked the starting 11’s for each team and had my concerns, of a beach game, confirmed. Everton had left both of their main creative midfield powerhouses out of the team they would begin the match with. Claire Emslie was on the bench whilst their normal captain, Izzy Christiansen, was left out of the matchday squad altogether. I hope she enjoyed her evening off by cheering her teammates on from the stands, but cannot say for certain whether or not she did.

Chris Robert’s team payed the price for leaving these two midfield talismans out of their starting 11 almost immediately. Spurs started the match on the front foot and having intercepted a weak pass in midfield they advanced to the edge of the box. Unfortunately for the sprinkling of away fans that had made the long trip north the shot that came in was straight down the throat of Courtney Brosnan between the sticks for the hosts.

Spurs broke the deadlock within just 5 minutes of kick-off with a silky smooth team move. Rachel Williams slipped a ball down the right-hand channel for an offside-trap beating Evelina Summanen to run on-to. Under tight supervision from the Everton defence she slipped the ball inside and past Brosnan to Asmita Ale, who had the simple task of sorting her feet out to deflect the ball goalward and then watch it nestle in the back of the unguarded net.

With the situation of both teams in mind I thought that would be the end of the scoring, but the visitors came close to doubling their lead just 2 minutes after establishing it. First Williams got behind the home defence and slid a ball across the 6 yard box that should have been turned home by Ale or Rosella Ayane, but neither could sort their feet out in time to apply the finishing touch. Then when the ball broke to Maeva Clemaron on the edge of box she unleashed a powerful shot that skimmed the top of the bar as it made it’s way behind for a goal kick.

Scoring the opener had dropped the initiative into the lap of Spurs on a silver platter. They began to boss possession and attempt to create some clear-cut chances to add to their lead. The closest they came to creating such chances soon after that Clemaron chance came through Ashleigh Neville who whipped on in from the right where it was grabbed off the toes of Ayane in the centre as she shaped to turn it home. Brosnan need not have bothered with this excellent effort though as no sooner did she have the ball in her hands than the assistant on the near-side raised her flag for offside.

This period of Spurs possessional dominance was brought to an end see after this offside though when Molly Bartrip over hit a back pass to her keeper, Becky Spencer, and gave the cheapest corner to Everton that they could hope to receive. The corner was chucked into the mixer and Everton kept the pressure up with recycle after recycle, as Spurs scrambled to lump the ball clear, until Toni Duggan flashed a header wide of the left hand post off a cross from the right flank.

Clemaron took it upon herself to try and reassert Spurs dominance on the match as she carried the ball into the hosts half before setting the ball forward into the path of Jiali Tang on the right as she was clattered by a recovering Toffee’s midfielder. The ref waved play on as Tang advanced down the wing, but her cross was blocked behind for a corner that was headed far wide of the back post as Spurs wasted an excellent chance to increase their lead.

The hosts were only able to hold their visitors at bay up to this point of the match, but they finally created a half chance of their own as the match passed the 25 minute mark. Lucy Graham and Poppy Pattinson combined on the right before Pattinson hung a cross up to the far post, from where it was headed back across goal to miss the left hand post by inches and out for a goal kick.

The threat posed by the hosts was diminished further in the first half hour of the match as they struggled to find ways to get Toni Duggan involved in their attacking play. Any team that fails to include their main striker in their attacks is going to struggle to score and so Everton were proving things to be here.

Pattinson tried to single-handedly force her team into the equation of the match as the match trudged toward the half-hour mark. Scything through the Spurs team she leaves 4 of her opposition tied up in knots as she drives her way into the box but her finish needs work as she toe-pokes it towards Spencer’s near post, where the keeper is able to shovel it behind for a corner that was wasted by the hosts.

Frustration from their lack of ability to break through the solid Spurs defence boiled through the Everton ranks as Ayane broke through the midfield. The Spur’s player was the victim of a cynical tackle that left her needed the first physio treatment of the match. She was cleared to carry on and was soon back in the thick of the action but this new physical approach from the hosts unsettled their visitors, who began to make a plethora of mistakes.

Spencer set the mistakes in motion by struggling to get the ball under control from a fizzed back pass and barely managed to smuggle the ball clear with Simone Magill charging through to close her down. Then Neville got in on the act by failing to trap a ball into her from the wing. She went to trap it but connected only with thin air and the ball punished her for this mistake by bouncing off the turf in-front of her and cannoning into her face. Thankfully she was able to continue without requiring physio attention, but this was not the last of the Spurs mistakes as two of the visitors went for the same ball and both missed it. Lucky for the visiting fans there was no home player on hand to take advantage of either of these mistakes.

Everton were cutting out many of the Spurs’ attacks at this point of the match by utilising the offside trap to great effect. They were not creating much of their own though, despite Pattinson finding acres of space a lot on the wings as her teammates failed to find her anywhere near often enough.

Summanen got the first free-kick of the match as she ran straight into Gabi George on the edge of the box on the right-hand side. The free-kick was floated to the back post before Graham beat the lurking Spurs attackers to the ball to head it behind for a corner, that was predictably wasted by the visitors.

Spurs were back on top now as the half entered it’s final 10 minutes, with Neville smashing a half-volley behind off a defenders head before Tang volleyed over the bar on the turn when the corner dropped to her on the edge of the box. Then, as the half entered it’s final 5, Ayane powering down the left wing before fizzing the ball across for Neville in the centre. She was tracked well by Pattinson though and could only pull her shot wide of the post as another half chance going begging.

Everton created the first of the chances in the dying minutes of the half but they fell apart as quickly as they were made. Magill chucked a throw in behind the Spurs defence for Pattinson to run onto, after being asked to do so, only for Pattinson not to make the run. Then Grace Clinton whipped in a free kick from the left, after Magill was fouled, that soared over the waiting players in the area and out for a goal-kick.

Having survived these half-hearted attempts to level by their hosts, Spurs wrapped the half up by wasting one final chance of their own as Ayane rifled a shot in from the left that was aimed straight into Brosnan’s waiting arms. As the teams ambled off down the tunnel for half time, with the visitors a goal to the good, I went to grab a cheeseburger and a drink hoping against all logic that the second half would produce some threatening chances and enthralling goal-mouth action.

In an effort to increase the visitors chance of providing both of these things Rehanne Skinner dipped into her options on the bench and replaced Kerys Harrop and Jiali Tang with the fresh attacking legs of Jessica Naz and So-hyun Cho. She then sent her team out early for the second half in an attempt to unnerve the hosts.

These changes failed to make an immediate impact on the match as Cho faded into the background of a match that had turned supremely cagey. Naz’s most memorable contribution to the first 15 minutes of the half was also her first, when she pulled down Graham for a clear Everton freekick on halfway.

The match trudged it’s way all the way to the hour mark with both teams being restricted to a little prodding and probing of their opposition’s defence with much intricate overplaying of the ball that failed to break through. Defence’s were utterly dominant during this exhausting 15 minutes of sleeping pill football. Play became so turgid going forward that the desperation to create anything of note led to Summanen taking her chances with a thunderbolt from 35 yards. Although it was a lovely surprise to see something a little more ambitious on the pitch it was also not that well hit and drifted acres wide of the left hand post.

Roberts, in the Toffee’s dugout, had reached his limit with the uninspired play being forced into his retinas by the 65th minute and was finally pushed into action to make his first substitution of the match. He removed Anna Anvegard from the field and sending Kenza Dali on in her place to try and kick her teammates into gear so they could take something out of the match. I was hoping that it would be the creative spark of Claire Emslie that would be brought on as the match was so torturous at this point and badly in need of that spark.

Instead it fell to Spur’s Ayane to spark things back into life by surging down the right channel and finally collapsing the wall of defensive dominance that had been chocking the life out of the second half so far. Her shot was flashed across the face of goal but Brosnan was equal too it, punching clear to set Everton on the break. The hosts worked the ball upfield and finally managed to get Duggan involved in the match. She flashed her own ball straight across the edge of the 6 yard box and, with no clearing touch from Spencer, all it needed was a outstretched foot to direct it home. Sadly for the home fans and their hopes of an equaliser no such touch was provided.

Ayane was found again a few minutes later and this time with the freedom of the 18 yard box to relax and smash the ball home. She went for power and her constantly rising shot was palmed over the bar by Brosnan and the spark that had been provided was quenched once more.

Everton got their first prolonged period of possession for the half as the match hit 70 minutes. All they could manage from their 10 minutes of possessional dominance though was a wasted freekick, when Naz caught Pattinson with a crunching tackle on the far side of the pitch. This despite Roberts attempts to help them make the most of their period on top, by replacing Simone Magill with Danielle Turner and bringing on their creative talisman, Claire Emslie. In sending Emslie into the fray for the final 17 minutes he chose to remove Toni Duggan from the action. Taking off your main striker off as you introduce your assist maker was a strange call, but it almost worked.

First though Skinner made a final change to the visitors team for the final 10 minutes taking off Rachel Williams for Kyah Simon as both teams seemed willing to watch the clock tick down to full time. This led to another 5 minutes of uninspired play to add to a largely uninspiring 2nd half of football. The clouds above the stadium had been threatening to break all second half and this 5 minutes pushed them over the edge and they unleashed their deluge, which I really didn’t need from my seat in the front row.

This short, sharp shower seemed to finally wake the players up as from here the second half burst into life. The equaliser for Everton came hit me from the blindside like a Tyson Fury left hook. They had created precious little all match till this point but a cross into the centre was turned home in the centre by the recently introduced Turner and it appeared we had a grandstand finish on our hands with both teams searching for a winner.

Less than 60 seconds the search was over as Josie Green, brought on seconds before Turner’s equaliser, turned in a cross from the right to re-establish Spurs one goal advantage. So it was now back to the status-quo of the later part of the second half, with Everton on the attack and Spur’s doing everything they could to waste time and see things out for the win.

Unlike the cagey play that characterised the early part of the half the play now was end to end, cavalier game play for the purist. Where was this awesome action earlier on in the match?

Everton were attacking with pace every chance they got now in a desperate attempt to restore parity and nab a point out of a match they had trailed in for so long. Dali had the majority of their chances in these final few minutes of the regulation 90. First firing a rifled shot both high and wide from 30 yards, then taking charge of the situation when both Leonie Majer and Hannah Bennison refused to shoot from 20 yards.

Her 20 yard shot took a massive deflection off the back of Cho’s head and out for a corner on the left and it was from this corner that Everton found their 2nd equaliser of the match. The corner was fired in from the left and when it came straight back out to the wing it was floated back in to the back post. It was here that Megan Finnigan rose majestically above her marker to head the ball back across Spencer’s diving body and into the back of the net.

Both teams had chances to win it in the 4 minutes of added time but Everton had the best of them. Majer slipped a ball across the box aiming to find Turner, who was in space at the back post, but popped it just millimetres too far ahead of Turner and it drifted away from danger. Then Graham fired one in from 30 yards straight down Spencer’s throat. Spurs had the final chance of the match with a freekick from the edge of the box that was sent curling toward the top right postage stamp before Brosnan had it on her toes and made it all the way across the goal to catch the ball and secure Everton’s hard earned point when the final whistle blew as her punt downfield was still in the air.

For a match that had been so supremely uninspiring for so long the final 5 minutes were of such an incredible high standard that I didn’t want it to be end. Despite my wishes though the match did end and with the honours even, so we all sat through 85 minutes of awful football for a brilliant 5 minutes that meant nothing.

It was still a lovely ending to the match though and I was grateful to have that to hold onto as I headed to another match on the May Bank Holiday. This one was in League 2 at the poshest ground I have ever been too as Salford looked to take their playoff push to the final day of the season, in a must-win match against Mansfield Town.

30th April 2022: League 1: Hillsborough: Sheffield Wednesday vs Portsmouth

To finish April off in style I headed to Sheffield to see if Wednesday could seal the deal as they aimed to qualify for the playoffs. They started the day in 4th place with a 2 point lead over Plymouth and Wycombe in 6th and 7th and with their destiny in their own hands.

Knowing that a win would secure their place in the playoffs I was confident that the Owls would get what they needed. Particularly needing to have both Wycombe and Plymouth winning even if they lose. A win for Wycombe away at Burton seemed likely but with Plymouth hosting a MK Dons team needing a win to secure automatic promotion I was as confident as the home fans around me that the Owls would secure their playoff spot. Particularly considering that their opponents, Portsmouth, were marooned in 9th and with nothing to play for in this match except pride.

The final day of the League 1 season saw all the games kick off at 12:30pm and with there being very few trains from Liverpool to Sheffield I knew that if my direct train, taking 1h45mins and arriving at 11:35pm, was delayed then I would be rushing to make the 25minute tram to make it. As such it should not be difficult to imagine the despair that flooded over me when the train tannoy announced that ‘this train is delayed due to signal problems in the Manchester area’ and it nearly drowned me when the same tannoy stated that there would be further announcements when information was available about when we would be underway.

The full delay ran to 45 minutes and as we did not make up any of this delay on route the tram was definitely out as a way to make the kick-off. Due to this delay I went online to find the team sheets as I knew my chances of getting to the stadium early enough to grab a programme were tiny. As such I had to rely on screenshots of the teams online to keep track of substitutes, cards and goal scorers.

If you do get to Sheffield in time to catch the tram it’s the yellow line from Fitzalan Square all the way to the Leppings Lane stop that is just 3 minutes walk from the stadium; However, my only option to make the start was to get a taxi and in this I was helped by a trio of home fans on the same train as me needing to utilise the same option.

They were gracious enough to allow me to join them in their taxi to the match and then refused to accept my contribution to the £8.70 cost of the transport. Thanks to these awesomely generous home fans I was settling into my seat having missed just 10 minutes of the match.

They were crucial minutes to miss though as they included the high point of the afternoon for the fans on the top tier of the Leppings Lane stand as it was during this time that they saw Pompey take the lead through George Hirst. This may have left them feeling that their long journey north from Hampshire had been worth it to see their team win, but by the time I made it to my seat the atmosphere inside the stadium told me that was not how the rest of their lunchtime was going to go.

Going behind had clearly sparked the home team into life as I was greeted by a rocking party atmosphere as I took my seat inside Hillsborough.

The hosts were stamping their authority on the game in midfield and this fed the atmosphere that I was grateful to have as it took my mind off the associations that I have of Hillsborough as a Liverpool fan.

I will touch on those feelings at the end of this blog, but for now it’s back to the action on the pitch as I had barely been in the ground a minute before Wednesday had a glorious chance to equalise gifted to them on a bronze platter.

Bazunu, between the sticks for Pompey, was sold short by a back pass by Robertson in the left back position and had to be fleet footed to thump the ball clear before Berahino could nab the ball off him with a rocket slide tackle. That would have been an embarrassing way for the visitors to concede the equaliser. It would not be long till the hosts were level but at least it did not come with a dollop of embarrassment when it did arrive.

I had time to get my bearings before the equaliser though, which included locating the away fans in the top tier of the Leppings Lane stand far away to my right and the screen to their left, on the far side of the stadium to myself.

Whilst I acquired those bearings the hosts built up the pressure that would lead to their equaliser. Crosses from both sides were skied over the players waiting in the box as the hosts tried to make their pressure tell before Berahino won a corner in the 15th minute. The corner was flicked on at the near post and just needed a decent contact to turn it home from the 6 yard box.

The finishing touch was not to come this time, but two minutes later it did. The cross was whipped into the 6 yard box from the left flank where Lee Gregory met it with a deft little touch to guide it into the net for the equaliser.

The atmosphere was already plenty boisterous in the home stands but even so my ears were not ready for the onslaught of euphoria that followed that equaliser. It was as if an invisible force had reached into the souls of each home fan and turned them into devices to destroy the moon with sound waves. It was such a buzz to be part of that atmosphere, an atmosphere that would only improve as the match went on.

The Owls grabbed the match by the scruff of the neck following that goal and looked like adding to their tally every time they advanced into the Portsmouth half. The visitors mustered very little resistance to their hosts dominance of the ball as they looked to weather the storm and threaten on the break.

In this atmosphere of dominance it took just 4 minutes from the Owls equaliser before they fashioned a chance to take the lead. Byers picked up the ball in midfield and scythed his way up to the edge of the box. He chose to feed the ball right toward Berahino, where a defender was blocking the way and able to clear, when the slide left into the path of an unmarked Gregory would have borne more fruit for the hosts.

No matter though as the hosts were creating another chance as soon as the 23rd minute and this time they were trying to set up Gregory. Hunt was fed in behind down the right and he stood his cross up for Gregory to head home at the far post. Unfortunately for the home fans Hunt had got a smidgen too much height on the cross, the ball bounced off the top of Gregory’s head and harmlessly away to the left touchline.

With these disappointments fuelling him Gregory took it upon himself to try and fire the hosts into the lead their dominant play deserved. He let fly with a thunderbolt of a volley from 20yards out, just left of centre, that looked to be skimming the right post on it’s way to bulging the net until Bazunu strained his every sinew to pinch the ball out of the air and keep the scores level.

Gregory came back again 2 minutes later but this time his efforts to turn provider with a cut back from the by-line was once again prevented from reaching it’s target by Bazunu, this time using his legs to block the ball. Then rising to his feet in time to see the next cross from the right fizz across his 6yard box where there was no-one there to turn it home.

The torment being dished out to the visitors by Gregory got to the point by the 29th minute that Pompey could only stop him was to wrestle him to the ground on the edge of the box. This was missed by the ref however and the match went on interrupted.

As Gregory was now being marked so tightly by the visitors his teammates stepped up to provide the attacking impetus. Berahino took off down the left wing in the 31st minute before laying the ball back into the feet of Bannan 15 yards from goal in the centre of the box. He drove a powerful body towards top bins, but once again Bazunu came to his teammates rescue with a spring-heeled leap to tip the ball over the bar.

Bazunu had been keeping Pompey in the match by sheer force of will up to this point so it was only fitting that it was a mistake by him that led directly to the corner from which Wednesday took the lead. He tried to let a heavy pass down the right channel run behind for a goal kick, but was unable to shield it from Gregory on a mission. The Owl’s man got to the ball first and it was his crosses that were eventually blocked behind for the corner.

The corner from the right was blasted towards the back post where it was met by Berahino who flicked it across Bazunu until it rested in the back of the net. Cue another exponential increase in the party atmosphere in the stands.

Wednesday were not satisfied with a flimsy one goal lead though as they turned up their attack speed and the numbers getting forward for each one as they began to run riot in search of their 3rd before half-time.

They almost had it in the 39rd minute as some mazy footwork by Luongo saw him tie 4 of his opponents in knots before threading a ball through the remains of the Pompey defence for Bannan to meet in the right channel. His inviting ball through the corridor of uncertainty just needed a tap home, but it never came and the hosts were made to wait a little longer to double their.

A little longer turned out to be all of a minute as Byers cross from the right wing was turned home by Storey in the box and the home fans took it up another notch as they were now sure that the party was never going to be called off now. The only thing that was uncertain now was just how many Wednesday would get as the Pompey player’s head had dropped to their feet as they looked to survive till half-time without suffering further damage.

The hosts were attacking with speed and purpose as well as closing the ball down with verve and conviction any time it slipped into Pompey’s hands. This approach almost paid dividends in the dying seconds of the 3 added minutes at the end of the half. A free kick was fed down the left wing from the halfway line and when the ball across the box popped out to Bannan on the edge of the area he swivelled on the spot before unleashing a rifle of a volley towards goal. The aiming on the volley was off by inches though as it skimmed the top of the crossbar on it’s way behind.

Bazunu only had time to hoof the goal kick upfield before the ref blew for half-time, giving the visitors a temporary respite from the torture and the hosts a chance to get catch their breath before going again in the second half. Seriously in need of some sustenance I headed out onto the concourse to join the food queues. I chose badly though as my queue moved with the speed of a cooking snail traversing the Sahara whilst the queue next to me flew along with the speed of a 747 cruising over the Atlantic.

Being decidedly second best throughout the vast majority of the first half appeared to have hurt the Pompey players as they came roaring out the blocks in the second half as they attempted to establish a foothold to help them get something out of the match. They got hold of the ball and didn’t let go for 5 minutes as they probed the resolute Wednesday back line. The chance for the visitors came from a freekick slipped to the near post from the left touchline, which was flicked on into the centre and then landed on the roof of the net above a melee of people waiting to turn it in below.

With Pompey showing signs of life in the half Bannan took it upon himself to push the momentum back Wednesday’s way with a gut busting sprint from halfway to close Bazunu down as he thumped a back pass clear just in time. The effort shown by this sprint was enough to re-energise the home fans, spark the party atmosphere again and raise the Wednesday players to go again.

This encouragement in their back pockets it took just 2 minutes for the home team to create the chance that should have made it 4-1. Johnson drove his way to the by-line and pulled it back past a stranded Bazunu to Bannan, who had found space at the penalty spot. It looked like a simple stroke home for the live-wire midfield man but his side-footed finish bounced away from goal off the legs of Bazunu, whose Speedy Gonzalez reflexes saw him recover in time to preserve the score at just 3-1 to the Owls.

Bannan created another chance for his team as the game ticked over the hour mark as he floated a ball to the back post. He was aiming for Berahino, but the big striker lost his footing before he could connect with it and increase the Owls advantage.

The early impetus for Pompey this half had well and truly evaporated by this point of the match and this led to Danny Cowley making an early dip into his bench options in the 64th minute. He removed Jacobs from the action and brought O’Brien on in an attempt to change the game. Straight away it led to a chance for the visitors as Carter sprayed the ball crossfield to Curtis, who slides his cross back to the edge of the 6 yard box. Unfortunately for the visitors chance of getting back into the match the finish to this excellent build-up was a weak toe-poke that ended up hugely wide of the post.

Within a minute of this Pompey chance the hosts came agonisingly close to they had been threatening for a while now. A sumptuous 60 yard ball out of defence set Gregory running free in behind an AWOL Pompey defence. Bazunu rushed out of his area to close down the angle so Gregory chipped the ball over him and whilst it looked to be dipping in it ended up resting on the roof of the goal. It would’ve been an awesome way to score a 4th for the hosts and cap their comeback, but alas it was not to be.

As the game entered the final 20 minutes I took note of how clean the match had been to this point, evidenced by the lack of any cards being brandished by the ref so far. This may have cursed it a little as not 30 seconds had passed from me noting this to Gregory gaining a Yellow next to his name for cynically cutting out a Pompey break 25 yards from goal.

It was a needless tackle and a clumsy freekick to give away, but it only led to a corner on the right that was fizzed to the back post. A Pompey man rose highest there to direct it towards the postage stamp at the near post. It looked to be going in for a few seconds till Peacock-Farrell appeared from nowhere to tip it onto the bar before the rebound was chipped over the bar at the near post.

The fact that Pompey had managed to create their first chance in a while pushed Darren Moore into finally making a change of his own as the match ambled into it’s final 15 minutes. Berahino was given the rest with one eye on keeping him fresh for the playoffs as Windass was given a run-out. The match itself had lost all edge at this point with it looking like both teams were happy to allow the score to finish as it was.

The spark was back 5 minutes later though, with just 10 minutes left for either team to add to their tally. Pompey fed the ball through to Hirst in the right channel only for his 1st time shot to be tipped over the bar by Peacock-Farrell at his near post. Wednesday broke from the corner but this was brought to a premature end when Bannan found himself laying poleaxed on the turf. He was able to continue after a little physio treatment but, with playoffs on the brain Moore was taking no chances.

Bannan had been such an integral part of Wednesday’s midfield build-up play in this one and the team captain, that it was only right he should be protected for the playoff semi-finals. Paterson came on in his place and made a huge impact in his first 2 minutes in the action. First he managed to pick up the fastest yellow I have seen at a match. Then he made up for it a minute later by rocketing a volley in from 25 yards that was only kept out by yet another awesome fingertip save from Bazunu, who had such an awesome match that he did not deserve to be on the losing side of.

Unfortunately for Bazunu the hosts weren’t letting his say be the deciding factor as they finally added their 4th goal from a corner 4 minutes from time. The corner was flung into the mixer where Byers found the space to turn it home. Byers had been another creative force for Wednesday as they controlled the match and it was brilliant to see his efforts rewarded with a goal. Not to mention the roar of the crowd as the party reached it’s insane crescendo was awesome to experience.

With his team now 4-1 to the good Moore shuffled his pack once again to save another key Man for the playoffs. This time it was Gregory given the rest as Dele-Bashiru was sent on to see out the few minutes that now remained. Cowley responded to this change by replacing Thompson with Mingi, for all the difference it would make at this point.

Frustration in the Pompey ranks boiled over in the penultimate minute of the 90 as Morrell and Byers squared up to each other far to my left and picked up a yellow each for their troubles. Carter and Windass also received a talking too for their part in proceedings but both escaped without cards, luckily for Windass given the previous yellow on his name.

This was the last action of note in the match before the ref blew the whistle and brought the party in the home stands to a climax of earth bending noise. The 33,394 fans in attendance were extremely well behaved at full-time, with only a couple of people ignoring the repeated pleas to stay off the pitch.

The players stayed on the pitch and were joined by their families on the slowest lap of honour I have ever experienced as the home players lapped up the crescendo of adulation pouring down on them from the stands. They sped up a fair bit as they passed the Leppings Lane end, which had been speedily evacuated by the visiting fans as soon as the final whistle blew.

Good luck to Sheffield Wednesday as they take their promotion fight into the playoffs this weekend, but before I leave this blog I must come back to my feelings at visiting Hillsborough.

I had travelled to the match determined to enjoy the football and prove to myself that the stadium is more than just a disaster zone. During the match I had achieved this goal but as I left I walked past the Leppings Lane entrance and my mind was cast back to all the stories that I have heard about 14th April 1989. I was on the verge of tears, but still managed to stop for a moments reflection in honour of the 97 who lost their lives that day before heading for the tram back into town.

To know that I can walk away from matches safe and well is something that I take for granted, but those who lost their lives on that fateful day will never be forgotten.

Justice for the 97.

Saturday 23 April 2022: Brentford Community Stadium: EPL: Brentford vs Tottenham Hotspur

So for St. George’s day weekend and with no luck in getting a ticket to the Merseyside Derby, I went back to London instead and returned to church. I went back to Brentford and wow was it nice to be back watching my team in their home stadium. There is just something indescribably awesome about seeing the team you support play at home. It’s a feeling that every football supporter has felt, but to explain it to someone who has never felt it would take a linguist of Keats, Tennyson or Austen. I am not them, so all I can say is that just remembering that feeling is making me punch the air days later.

The main reason I was able to justify the travel and expense of a day trip to London was the knowledge that what I was going to see was the first time Christian Eriksen was up against Tottenham Hotspur since leaving for Inter Milan. He would also be facing his Inter manager Antonio Conte. With all this emotional weight hanging over the match for Eriksen I was nervous to see how he and his new team, the Bees would hold up for the match.

There was less emotional weight hanging over Eriksen’s first match against his ex-employers than there could have been though. Brentford visited White Hart Lane on 2nd December, just over a month before signing Eriksen, so at least he would not have his memories of playing at that ground hanging over him as well. The Bees lost that match 2-0 to a Canos own goal and a Son Heung-Min finish, so I was hoping that the addition of Eriksen would cause a change in the outcome this time round.

He has certainly had a galvanising effect on Brentford’s form since he came in. They were having a dreadful time and had only won a single league game across December and January, a 2-1 comeback win against Steven Gerrard’s Villa at home. At that point they were looking tentatively over their shoulder at the rapidly advancing relegation zone, but since Eriksen has started playing full games for the team they have turned things around.

The Bees started the day in an incredible 12th place with a feasible chance of ending the season with a top half finish. They are also in some seriously impressive form having won 5 of their last 6 matches since the start of March, including that jaw-dropping demolition of Chelsea at Stamford Bridge. If you had told Bees fans at the beginning of the season that they would have a yawning chasm of 11 points separating them from the drop zone with 5 games to go they would have bitten your arm off. So for that to actually be where they find themselves, almost guaranteed another season in the top and with just a 2 point gap to 9th place, is insane.

Spurs, their opponents for today’s match, find themselves clawing for results to get them over the line in the fight for 4th. That’s the place they started the day in but a win at home for their North London rivals in the early kick off, 3-1 against Man U, saw them drop into 5th by the time this match got underway. They were only in 5th on goal difference though, so a big win here or even a draw would see them back in the top 4 by the end of the day.

The biggest problem holding Spurs back from already having 4th under lock and key is an alarming lack of consistency in both performances and results. To call their league results since the start of March a mixed bag would be kind in the extreme as it includes both huge 5-0, 5-1 and 4-0 wins, against Everton (H), Newcastle (H) and Aston Villa (A) respectively, as well as Brighton beating them 1-0 at the Amex and a 3-2 loss to Man U (A) that saw them equalise twice before losing to a Ronaldo hat-trick completed in the 81st minute. The result of this match rests on the question of which Spurs team turns up today.

Fans of Spurs could really do with it being the huge wins kind as their next 3 fixtures see them hosting Leicester City, before heading to Anfield then finishing off with the North London derby on home turf. With those matches all looking difficult to take maximum points from Antonio Conte will be looking at this match against a newly promoted team as an easy 3 points to shore up their tilt at the top 4. Sure they have Burnley (A) and Norwich (H) as their final 2 matches but without a result today they may well be out of the top 4 picture before they get to those.

Before travelling to this match I did a quick check on the injuries effecting each team and found that those lists are long for everyone here. The hosts are without: Ethan Pinnock, Zanka, Sergi Canos, Frank Onyeka, Kristoffer Ajer and Christian Norgaard for this match through injury. Whilst the list for the visitors isn’t as long it did include Matt Docherty, Oliver Skipp and Japhet Tanganga. Slightly better news for the visitors was to come though as both Steven Bergwijn and Lucas Moura were fit enough for the bench for this one as they continue their personal returns from injury.

Travelling to the match proved to be far easier said than done however .Having taken an early train to London I decided to take the time to visit Westminster Abbey before heading to the stadium for the 5:30pm kick off. Even so I gave myself 2 and a half hours to travel from St. James’ Park down to South Ealing and get the bus from there to the ground. This turned out to be an excellent call as I nearly required all of it to make kick off.

What I thought would be a simple District train to Hammersmith, where I would change for the Piccadilly to South Ealing, turned into a nightmare when it was announced that the District line was delayed in my direction. I lost track of the trains that went the other way before the Danish bees fans I had been talking too decided to rage quit the tube and grab a taxi to the ground. They offered me a seat in the taxi and I really should have taken it.

Instead I grabbed a District line train towards Westminster, where it was announced that the District line going the direction I originally needed had been suspended due to a faulty train. I hope they got that announcement at St. James’ Park too. From Westminster I took the Jubilee line one stop north to Green Park before joining the Pic from there and surfing it all the way to South Ealing. Thankfully the bus from that station was running with maximum efficiency and I got to the ground with 15 minutes still to go before kick off.

Whilst on the bus ride I couldn’t resist checking the team sheets for the match on my phone and saw to my delight that there had been no last minute problems for Eriksen and he would indeed be lining up for the Bees against his ex-employers. The rest of the home team was as follows: David Raya; Rico Henry, Pontus Jansson (c), Mads Bech, Mads Roerslev; Mathias Jensen, Vitaly Janelt; Saman Ghoddos, Bryan Mbeumo, Ivan Toney.

Lining up against them for Spurs were: Hugo Lloris (c), Ben Davies, Rodrigo Bentancur, Eric Dier, Cristian Romero, Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg, Emerson Royal, Ryan Sessegnon, Dejan Kulusevski, Son Heung-Min and Harry Kane.

This was all easy to note down on my programme, bought on my was from bus to turnstile, due to the awesome design of it’s back cover. Each players name has boxes next to it for: Starting, Substitute, Yellow Card, Red Card and Goal. This is insanely useful for my purposes and for anyone else looking to create a tangible memento of their experience, I only wish other teams did such a great job on their programmes.

The only problem I had was that the tradition of players that aren’t on the programme being included in the matchday squad returned. This time it was 2 of the Spurs substitutes who had been omitted from the list and for fans of Cluedo they share their surnames with two of the playable female characters in that game, White and Scarlett. Neither Harvey White (20, midfielder) nor Dane Scarlett (18, forward) had made their debut for Spurs yet so I’m sure both would be hoping to get off the bench today. Only time would tell if they managed to or not though.

By the evidence of their teammates warm-up Dane Scarlett in particular had a strong case that his talents may be needed. I don’t recall any of the Spurs strikers managed to score during their shooting practice at the end of the warm-up with them either missing the target by miles of seeing their shots catapult back towards them off the posts. Perhaps this was just their way of getting all the bad luck out before kick off though.

As the teams were announced on the stadium tannoy with 5 minutes to go before the match got underway it was an awesome touch of class to hear a deafening round of applause from all corners of the ground as Eriksen’s name was announced. He may be playing against them today but Spurs’ fans clearly still have a lot of respect for him and really want him to re-join their club for next season. As a Bees fan though all I can say is that there is not one Bees supporter who wants to see you leave Mr. Eriksen, so please don’t.

I finished my hot dog before kick off, bought from a kiosk other than ‘The Griffin’ as Brentford finally sort out their food options, and settled in for the match. One that was started under clouds of tense silence in the home stands and a party of the away fans singing chants for Eriksen that they had perfected during his time with their club. I just hoped that the action on the pitch would force a switch in the stand dynamics as the hosts got thing underway.

_{The view of the ground from my seat, you can just make out the Spurs’ fans away to my left}

With the vocal backing of the away contingent in the stands it was perhaps unsurprising that Spurs were on the attack from kick-off. Son Heung-Min was fed a ball down the right channel in just the second minute, but Rico Henry was paying attention to the threat and managed to get across to block Son’s route to goal. It looked like the first battle of the day was only seconds away, till the linesman’s flag intervened and robbed us of this tantalising spectacle.

This was just the first attack in an opening half that was played at 1,000mph. Whilst this was a joy for the purist inside me to witness it did cause some issues with making notes of everything I was seeing, as every time I looked down to make notes I risked missing some insane action on the pitch. A minor complaint about a match that was a joy to watch, exhibition football for the purist, a lovely personal reward after the awful spectacles I have sat through at other recent matches.

The Bees took that Son chance as motivation to grab the match by the scruff of the neck and push forward. First Jansson nabbed the ball high in the midfield and plays a slide rule through the Spurs defence intended for Mbeumo to turn home. Unfortunately the ball ran to the right side of Mbeumo where a Spurs defender was able to reach it and clear. If the ball had been to Mbeumo’s left he would have been clean through on goal, but alas this was not to be. Just a minute later the ball was back at Mbeumo’s feet on the edge of the box, having fallen to him when a teammate was fouled whilst cutting in from the right touchline, he let fly and missed the right hand post by miles and so the first 5 minutes of the match came to an end.

This was not the end of the Bees early pressure on their visitors goal though as they secured back to back corners in the 6th minute. Both of these were taken by the man of the moment, Eriksen, and the applause that went up from the away end as he took the corners from directly beneath their stand nearly crushed my ear drums. As for the corners themselves, they were both easily cleared upfield by Spurs, though the second clearance came after the ball appeared to strike a defender’s hand. The ref waved away all protests for a penalty though and in truth it would’ve been a harsh one to give as the ball was volleyed towards him at pace from just a yard away, giving him no chance to get his hands out of the way.

In the 8th minute Janelt sprayed a beautiful 40 yard crossfield ball up to Rico on the Bees right, but Rico lost the ball as he attempted to advance into the box. Having lost the ball the Bees right-back then raced back to cut out a ball through to Kane in the right hand channel. This incredible defensive effort from Rico was to typify the defences of both teams for the rest of the match.

The first chance for Spurs to show this mentality came in the 10th minute when Hugo Lloris managed an Ederson, losing control of the ball yards from his own goal he recovered just in time to slice the ball clear and away from a charging Mbeumo. This near miss for Spurs put me in mind of Zack Steffen’s mistake that gifted Liverpool a goal in the FA Cup semi-final and I’m certain that Lloris is glad not to add his name to the list of goalkeeping howlers through the years.

Spurs threatened again in the 12th minute when they end up earning a corner on the right, but Son sends it high over the heads of everyone in the box where it was poked out for a throw to Spurs on the left. This throw was worked into a crossing position only for the resultant cross to be blocked behind by Mads Bech for a corner to the visitors from the other side. In an attempt to correct for the high corner from the other side a few minutes earlier Spurs tried a driven corner low into the box, but it fails to beat the first man and is easily cleared upfield.

It took until the 16th minute for the Bees to get their first corner of the match and it came through a mistake from the visitor’s Romero. He failed to keep a goalkick in play on the right and from the throw Ghoddos was able to whip in the cross that was headed behind for the corner. From this corner Toney powers a header towards goal from the penalty spot that looks to be breaking the deadlock until Lloris springs from nowhere to get his hand to it and push it out from under the bar. No doubting that it was an incredible save from Lloris, but he hurt himself in the process of making it and there was a short break in play whilst he was tended too by the physios before he was able to continue.

Brentford secured another corner in the 19th minute and for this one they broke out a training ground routine. This meant taking the corner short though and made it easy for Spurs to set themselves up for the eventual cross and clear the ball without breaking a sweat. As such the Bees tried upping the tempo when they attacked again in the 21st minute. A quick throw by Toney unleashed Rico into space on the left but, unable to whip a cross into the box, his return ball to Toney was cut out and turned behind for another Bees corner.

For this one Bees reverted to type and chucked a ball straight into the mixer. It found Toney unmarked at the back post but his volley across the 6 yard box was unable to find the tap home that it required and Spurs were able to shepard the ball behind for another corner for the hosts. This one was floated to the edge of the box, but without the normal pace on it Dier was able to get to it and connect decisively to send the ball sailing away to half way.

The 25th minute arrived and this was the cue Eriksen needed to create his first incredible skill of the match. He fired a ball through the Spurs lines on the right to set Toney running free but his slide back to Mbuemo was cut out by the Spurs defence and chalk up another corner for Brentford. This one was punched off the top of Mbuemo’s head by Lloris and set the visitors on the attack.

This was an attack that resulted in the first free-kick of the match when Kulusevki lost his footing 20 yards from goal. The ref reckoned he saw a push by Jensen and since his call is the only one that counts everyone else just had to go with it. Justice was served when the free kick was set ballooning over the bar and the gap was one you can fit the shard into, but at least it was a nugget of success for the visitors and gave their fans something to hold onto during an extended period of Bees pressure.

At the half-hour mark the hosts had another chance to break the deadlock when Rico ripped the ball free in midfield. He fed Eriksen whose brilliant ball over the top landed to Mbeumo’s right when, once again, his left hand side was where the opportunity to guide it home was.

Spurs almost punished their hosts for messing this one up just 3 minutes later, in the 33rd minute, when Son drove through the middle before sliding the ball left for a cross to be fired across the box. That cross evades everyone in the 6 yard box and runs out for a Bees throw on the far side but it served as a reminder to everyone in the stadium that Spurs were determined to make a match of this one.

Further proof of this was provided by Kane in the 39th minute as he tried to chip Raya from the far right corner of the box. The ball sailed harmlessly into Raya’s arms after he scrambled to recover his position in time.

Eriksen was just as determined to turn the game in the Bees favour however and he had two gilt-edged chances to do so in back to back minutes in mid-thirties. In the 35th minute he sprayed a gorgeous ball down the right channel from halfway line that dropped on the open left-side of Mbeumo. This time though Mbeumo was unable to sort his feet out and get the shot away on goal before a defender can hack it clear. Only as clear as a throw half way into their own half though and Eriksen sends the ball straight back into the area. He sprays it down the left channel this time but got a little too much on his pass and a Toney on his heels was unable to make up the ground for a simple tap-in.

The flow of the game had been helped immensely upto this point of the match by the man in the middle letting everything go, but this immense clemency came to an end in the 43rd minute. Rico Henry and Emerson Royal engaged in a 50/50 as Royal charged forward with the ball at his feet. The ref gave Royal the benefit of the doubt and Spurs had the first freekick in a long time. It came to nothing and a minute later Brentford had one of their own when Mbeumo was bought in the centre circle, but this also came to nothing. Even for these offences the ref refused to reach into his pocket.

We were only provided with a single minute of added time at the end of this pulsating half and I headed to the concourse for half-time wishing that there had been even more to enjoy. I spent half-time talking to my uncle and cousins, seated in their normal spot further down the stand and my uncle was not wrong when he told me that “this is the best I’ve seen the Bees play”. Guilt washed over me like a tidal wave though when I realised that he had got me the ticket to watch the Bees rip Chelsea apart and been unable to find one for himself too.

There were no changes at half-time from either team and after a quick discussion with a steward about the book I had with me, Stanley Matthews autobiography, the second half got underway. From kick-off Spurs went straight on the attack as Ryan Sessegnon surged down the right wing before putting his cross on a plate for a teammate rushing into the box. Volleying the ball when approaching at speed proved to be more difficult than expected though and the ball sailed harmlessly wide of the mark.

Dejan Kulusevski looked to clear in the box with just Raya to beat in the 48th minute before a supremely late flag from the linesman pulled things back. This was the start of a hectic 6 minutes where the match cranked up to 2,000mph and I couldn’t dare to look down to take notes. As such most of what I noted down in this period is garbled nonsense that I can’t decipher. What I did make sense of though was that a Spurs freekick from halfway made it’s way to Kane in the box, but his shot was deflected over the bar. The corner was cleared but Spurs came roaring back only for their cross to be cleared at the back post by Mbeumo.

This resulted in a Spurs corner on the right that was played short before being whipped into the box by Royal. It was headed straight back where it came from only for another cross to come whizzing in. This one was headed behind for a Spurs corner that was thumped clear by the Bees defence to finally break the siege for 60 seconds of much needed respite.

That respite expired in the 65th minute as Spurs came again as they looked to break through the resolute Bees defence and force the ball home. Kane, Kulusevki and Rodrigo Bentancur all flashed in volleys in quick succession but they were all blocked and then cleared out for the next man to take his crack at it. The last of these clearances broke instead to Son on the right wing but again his cross was too high, though this time it went out for a goal kick instead of a corner.

Brentford had their first attack in a long time in the 57th minute as Mbeumo collected the ball from a corner and drove into the box. His shot caused pinball in the area but there was no-one in red and white that could turn it home and it was eventually cleared. The hosts were buoyed by this as they attempted a training ground routine from a stonewall freekick as the match reached the hour mark. This came to nought but having the confidence to try such things reflected the confidence now flowing through the hosts as they regained the upper hand in the match.

The ref had still not dipped into his pocket for a card all match and he continued this streak in the 62nd minute as Toney was felled 25 yards from goal. Eriksen and Mbeumo stood over the ball, but it was Eriksen who struck it… straight into the wall and had to watch it bounce downfield to set Spurs on the attack. Sessegnon advanced down the right and then goes to cross the ball only to slap it over the bar

Play then surged the other way as Janelt let rip from 20 yards out only to see his shot deflected inches wide of the left post. The corner landed on the head of Jansson just 10 yards out and he directed the ball goalward, but saw it headed off the line by a well placed Spurs defender. The follow up from point blank range was strong armed round the post by Lloris, who then set the visitors on a break that was stopped by a Jansson foul that earnt him the first card of the match.

There was no let-up in the action on the pitch as the match entered it’s final 20 minutes. Son cut inside from the left and whipped a shot straight down the goalkeepers throat, which resulted in a clash of heads between Toney and a Spurs man that left the Bees player down for a while receiving treatment. Both were able to continue after treatment, but whilst they were being treated the fans had our first chance to draw breath in the half. The spectacle of attacking football that both teams were treating us too was awesome and the more games that I see like this the happier a Man I’ll be.

Sessegnon had been rather subdued in recent minutes as he came up against Ghoddos again and again, never managing to gain the upper hand. This was enough to convince Antonio Conte to make his first substitution of the match he sent on Davinson Sanchez in place of Sessegnon to pose a new challenge on the Spurs left and hopefully find a way through the deadlock.

For Brentford there was another such one-sided match up as Jensen was clearly struggling and able to be beaten with alarming regularity by Ben Davies as the match progressed through it’s seventies. Thomas Frank responded to this not just by replacing Jensen with Josh DaSilva, but also took the opportunity to change the Bees formation to 4-2-4 by replacing Ghoddos with with Yoane Wissa. This second substitution was made necessary the minute before it happened and the change in formation that it resulting in led to some very strange things occurring. The strangest of which was that Mbeumo dropped into the right back position when Spurs had the ball. This seemed crazy to me, but with complete faith in Mr. Frank’s reasoning behind this I was looking forward to seeing it work.

These changes from both teams and the late time that had been reached in the match led to an even more open contest breaking out. The 84th minute saw an Eriksen free kick bounce of the back on an oblivious Toney’s head and set Spurs on the break only for it to break down and Brentford to break themselves. What we were missing though, the only thing missing from the match, was the breakthrough goal that would win it for whichever team secured it.

This elusive winner appeared to have arrived in the penultimate minute as Raya set Brentford on the attack, having pouched a Son free kick from the right. Rico was sprinting free on the right and looking to curl in a cross when he was brought down for a free kick to the bees on the edge of the area. Eriksen whipped it in and it was headed down into towards the bottom right corner of the net from 8 yards out. Watching on from the far end I thought it was in, as did everyone around me, but as I looked to the ref to signal the goal and started to celebrate I noticed that Spurs were breaking downfield and my joy turned to ashes in my mouth. I still haven’t the feintest clue who kept it out or how, the only thing I know is that it was not a goal and the match remained at 0-0.

Kane had one final chance to win it for the visitors in the 3 minutes added to the end of the 90, but his scissor volley on the turn flew agonisingly wide of the right hand post, having flashed it’s way across Raya’s body. It would have been a goal worthy of winning a glorious encounter that, in truth, neither team deserved to lose. When the ref blew his whistle for full time I was in shock that such an incredible match had somehow managed to end goalless, but somehow it had.

This match was the most entertaining match I have been too since Stamford bridge and certainly the best match that I have been too which failed to provide either side with a goal. I was so engrossed in what I was witnessing on the pitch that it wasn’t till I was making my way out of the stadium that I noticed that my seat had been furnished with arm rests to either side of it the whole time.

I stayed long enough after the final whistle to watch the Bees player make their lap of honour and receive the rapturous appreciation of the home fans for the effort they had put in across the 90 minutes. The team tends to head round the four sides of the ground as one cohesive group, but today that was not the case. Eriksen was being so adoringly cheered by the away end that he was compelled to head across to them. Whilst over with the Spurs fans Eriksen signed an old replica Spurs shirt with his name on that one of the fans had brought with them to the match.

The Spurs supporters were incredibly gracious in their support of Eriksen at every opportunity they had and it was awesome to see such class acts from them all. Speaking as a Bees fan though, I hope Eriksen remains their ex and with Brentford for many seasons to come. You’re amazing Christian and we want you to stay with Brentford.

As the end of the season approaches in the lower leagues of English football my next 2 blogs will come from matches in Leagues 1 and 2 respectively. League 1 brings it’s season to a close with the 12:30 kick off’s on Saturday and I’m heading to one of the few which carriers significance for the promotion picture. Find out which one it is in my next blog.

Monday 18th April 2022: Easter Monday: Ewood Park: EFL Championship: Blackburn Rovers vs Stoke City

Having missed going to a Good Friday game due to other commitments I wanted to make sure I chose well for my Easter Monday match. I considered taking the direct train up to Bloomfield Road in Blackpool to see the seasiders take on Birmingham City and if I had I would’ve seen 7 goals as the hosts sauntered to a 6-1 win. I also looked at going to Salford City to see how their push for the League 2 playoffs went as they hosted Barrow AFC and there again I would’ve seen a great game. The hosts took the lead then went 2-1 down with 7 minutes to play only to score an 89th minute goal to equalise again and save a point for themselves.

Shrewsbury Town hosting Doncaster Rovers was another match that entered my considerations, but the travel to that one pushed it to the bottom of my list of possibilities. If the travel had been easier I would have gone to it and witnessed a thrilling 3-3 draw as the hosts threw away a 3-0 half-time lead to concede a 94th minute equaliser as the 3 points slipped through their fingers. The final unused option on my list was heading to Rochdale to watch their match against Hartlepool United which would have provided me with an awesome comeback for the hosts as they secured a 94th minute winner to send the home fans ecstatic with 3 points they never expected to get.

I didn’t go to any of those matches though as I chose instead to head out into the Lancashire Valleys to visit ex-Premier League champions Blackburn Rovers at their Ewood Park home as they took on Stoke City. This was a bad call in hindsight but the reason I went this way was that, having seen how Sheffield United’s play-off push is going last week, I wanted to see what Blackburn were doing to keep the pressure on those above them as they attempt to sneak into the play-offs.

Rovers started the day in 8th place 2 points outside of the fabled play-offs but their goal difference of 9 was enough to see them move up to 7th before kick-off, due to Middlesbrough’s 2-0 loss at home to Huddersfield in the day’s early game. Such results can have a huge effect on the play-off picture with just 5 points covering the field from 6th to 12th place at the start of the day.

Given the close nature of the play-off race it is incredible that Rovers remain in it with the way their recent form has been heading. They had not won for a month coming into this match, with that last win coming in a 3-1 demolishing of Derby County on 15th March. Their form showed no signs of turning round recently either as they have surrendered the lead in all 3 of their games so far in April.

They have only lost 1 of those 3 though, but that was their Good Friday match away at Peterborough United where they took the lead in the 77th minute only to throw away the win by conceding 2 goals in the final 10 minutes. The extenuating circumstances for that result though were that they had to play the whole of the second half as Edun was sent off for them in the 41st minute of that one and thus was not available for Tony Mowbray to include in his match squad for this one.

Stoke City for their part have nothing left to play for this season. They’re safely marooned in 15th place with another Championship season confirmed for them unless they win every one of their remaining matches and the teams above them all have their form drop off a cliff. They are 14 points clear of the relegation zone before kick-off with a maximum of 12 points available to the teams below them, whilst they have a 10 point deficit to the play-offs.

The Stoke players can put their feet up for the rest of the season if they so choose safe in the knowledge that they will be playing in the Championship once again next season. This mindset seemed to be in force in their match on Good Friday as they had slipped to a 1-0 loss to Bristol City. They had beaten West Brom 3-1 in their last away game though, so perhaps they weren’t all in their flip-flops yet.

My ticket was open to be used any time during the day and with it being Easter Monday I decided to take an earlier train than originally planned to ensure that I had wriggle room to make the kick-off if I ran into any unexpected delays. No such delays were encountered and I even arrived in Blackburn earlier than expected as when I joined the throng of people abandoning the train at Preston I found thatt I had more options to complete the journey than was originally advertised.

I was expecting to have to take the same slow train from Preston to Colne that had previously got me to Burnley, but this time I also had the choice of a quick train to York if I chose to spice up my journey. As this York train was 15 minutes quicker and left 12 minutes earlier I decided to take it and take my chances with even more time to kill pre kick-off in Blackburn. There were a smattering of other fans on my final train to Blackburn, but nowhere near the thousands I had expected to be descending on the village for the match.

Stepping out of the station I realised that I had not used the WiFi at Preston station well at all as I had no clue which way I needed to go to get to Ewood Park. After stumbling around the village for a while I managed to get my phone’s data working and work out a Google Maps route to the stadium. For those who want to get from station to stadium without getting lost it’s left out of the exit and then basically straight on till morning. Veer right at the fork of the huge roundabout, then right at the traffic lights, ignore the huge blue and white arched bridge that appears out of nowhere on your right, then hook a left once you have crossed the Leeds-Liverpool canal twice over and reached the Empire Theatre.

By the time I hooked this left I started to be joined by other fans and it was nice to see life did exist around here. The whole of Blackburn felt sleepy and I cannot fathom how they found the support from the sunny hills to propel them to winning the EPL back in the 1994/95 season. Even around the stadium itself that relaxed atmosphere persisted. The shop was both airy and welcoming, but completely of keyrings so I left without buying anything. Not before talking to the server behind the till who told me that “all programmes are now digital”, WHAT?

Seriously Blackburn, not to provide programmes to your fans as a physical memento of their match experience is a ridiculous call. Every other football team across the country provides physical programmes for their fans and with very good reason. It connects the fans to their experience of the match and gives them a physical reminder of the team that prompts them to buy more tickets to see them play again.

Also from a personal point of view I use them to make notes on the biggest moments of the match, not to mention ensuring that I have the correct starting 11 and substitute bench for both teams. Thus the lack of a programme was exceedingly frustrating. The only other match at which I have had to manage without a programme was during Brentford’s Stamford Bridge demolition job and that was down to the outside sanctions rather than any active decision by the host team.

Exiting the shop you are thrown straight into the fan zone area outside the ground, where some foreshadowing of what was to come reared its ugly head. The screen in this area was showing the end of the early kick-off between Middlesbrough and Huddersfield but the quality of this screen was abysmal and I could barely make out the players, let alone the team names or the score. Whilst trying to work them out the tannoy sparked into life and announced both team’s matchday squads at 1,000mph such that even with a programme I would have struggled to get even a single player noted down correctly.

Having escaped this area with the match still in motion and having stopped at the statue of Jack Walker ‘Rovers greatest fan’, I snuck down the side of the stadium which back into a babbling brook. This stand is called the riverside stand but there is no way that the waterway is anywhere near big enough to be considered a river. The river was the only sign of life on this side of the stadium though and as I emerged round to the Darwen stand end of the stadium the signs of life improved slightly, but only in terms of the police and ambulance people waiting to direct the fans that were yet to arrive. The plethora of car parks on this side of the stadium could accommodate the capacity of the stadium 5 times over but as things stood as I passed through the area it was so quiet you could hear a mouse whistle.

The Jack Walker stand side of the stadium was no busier than any of the others but there was at least a war memorial on this side. I stopped there to pay my respects to those who have made the ultimate sacrifice for our country before heading inside to see if I could detect signs of life inside the stadium.

Getting inside the stadium was the only place where the onslaught of new technology helps as, now I’m used to how they work, E-tickets are a useful replacement for their paper equivalents. Much easier to keep track of and harder to lose, but where they don’t help in the slightest is when you need to be a size minus 2 to fit through the turnstiles. Squeezing through was not easy and for the instant reward to be a brick wall that you have to turn sharp left to avoid smashing into was extremely unexpected. Once you make it round the wall though the concourse was roomy and empty to the point that you could drive an articulated lorry down it without a problem.

I bought a hotdog and drink for the ridiculous price of £7.10, not as money-grabbing as Chelsea but still awful for something so simple. That secured however I then poured myself down the steps and then as far left as possible to take my seat in the second row just four spaces from the dugouts. At this point I noticed that many of the fans around me had printed team-sheets which they told me they had been given from the dugouts, but when I asked for one the dugouts told me they had no idea what I was talking about. As such I am grateful to the fan in-front of me who allowed me to have his.

The away fans were hidden away high above the goal away to my right in the top tier of the Darwen Stand, just to the left of the single stadium screen. They were making loads of noise before kick-off though which was in direct contrast to the morgue atmosphere in the home stands. There was a banner screen between the tiers of the Darwen Stand that transformed into a match clock and score indicator 10 minutes before kick-off.

The stadium screen came in useful when the tannoy sparked into life to announce the teams. Each team’s squad was emblazoned on the screen in list form as the announcer ticked through it at a normal speed this time. Announcing the teams was useless for the fans though as those with team sheets already had the match squads on hand and for those without these magic sheets they had nowhere to put this information.

Stoke were in moss green tops and black shorts, whilst the hosts were in their traditional half-white, half-blue strip. The managers for their part emerged after their teams had taken the field but took polarly opposed approaches to their dugout role. The visitors Michael O’Neill headed straight up to the edge of his technical area, whilst Tony Mowbray made sure to shake every hand he could find in the Stoke dugout before reclining on the wall that separated the Blackburn area of it from the tunnel.

Perhaps this difference in the manager’s approaches bled over onto the pitch as within 4 minutes the visitors had take the lead. Stoke rolled a ball through the centre of the hosts defence and then saw the ball rolled past the charging Thomas Kaminski before Jacob Brown stroked it home into the empty net. A simple goal to put the visitors 1-0 up and leave everyone in the home stands in a state of shock and apart from the party in the away end you could hear a pin drop anywhere else in the stadium. There was no announcement on the tannoy of the goal scorer, but the squad lists on the screen gave away the scorer with a little football appearing in place of the squad number next to Brown’s name.

Blackburn responded to going behind by stringing together a set of attacks that ensured they wouldn’t concede again, but neither did they look like forcing their visitors to concede either and the reason for this was as Mowbray said himself “tell him to put it into the box”. The hosts seemed completely allergic to threatening the visitors goal and the main culprit of this was their number 10, Tyrhys Dolan. He seemed to be the only host’s player able to keep the ball but he over complicated everything he tried to do with it allowing Stoke to recover their shape and nick the ball back. Only to do nothing interesting with it themselves. Having secured the lead they appeared content to simply spend the rest of the match soaking up anything that Rovers threw at them.

Not that they had much to soak up as their hosts alternated between passing the ball straight back to Stoke whenever they attempted to advance over the halfway line and sliding incisive passes through the visitors defence without anyone running onto it to secure the equalising tap-in. An excellent example of the second type of Blackburn play came in the 19th minute when Sam Gallagher took it upon himself to advance the hosts cause and after bursting through the centre of the pitch he tucked a slide-rule pass into the box. Unfortunately none of his teammates were in the same postcode as him and as such this brilliant build-up play went without the finish it deserved.

As play reached the halfway point of the half Blackburn finally managed a decent passage of play in the Stoke half and from this they gained a free-kick on the right-hand touchline. Josh Maya gave away the freekick when he snapped away the ankles of the advancing Blackburn player, then compounded this mistake by failing to retreat 10 yards from the spot of the freekick and picking up the first yellow card of the match.

It took until the half hour mark for the next yellow card to be issued and this one went to the host’s Scott Wharton who came steaming into a tackle in the centre circle. 4 minutes later Jan Paul Van Hecke picked up the host’s second yellow card of the match for what looked like a very weak challenge on a Stoke player who was looking to take a run at the host’s defence. There didn’t appear to be much contact at all and Van Hecke may have been given the card for his remonstrations with the ref for giving the call this way.

Perhaps that call played on the ref’s mind and stopped him collecting a second yellow just 4 minutes later, as he pulled down a Stoke player as they looked to turn and then complained to the ref for giving a freekick against him for the foul. Only the extreme clemency exhibited by the referee kept him on the pitch till half-time, when he was correctly removed from the action by Mowbray who sent on Joe Rothwell in his place for the second half.

In the final 5 minutes of the half Blackburn finally gave the home fans a crumb of encouragement as they headed in for the break. First a lofted ball over the top had to be snatched off the head of Dolan by Jack Bonham in the Stoke net, if Dolan was taller that ball would have caused the visitors real problems. Dolan turned provider in the 43rd minute as he fizzed a ball into Ben Brereton Diaz on the edge of the box. Brereton Diaz attempted to pass the ball straight to the feet of a defender, but luckily for the hosts the defender wasn’t paying attention and the ball landed back at their man’s feet. With this second chance he advanced into the box before cannoning the ball directly into Bonham’s grateful arms at the near post.

This was the closest either team had come to scoring since Stoke’s opener and as such the booing by the home fans was utterly deserved as the home team trudged down the tunnel to face the wrath of Mowbray at half-time. The hosts had barely managed to string together 2 passes in the final third all half and only Brereton Diaz’s chance had credibly threaten the opponent’s goal all half. Booing was the least the home team should have expected to endure at half-time.

I tried to find some joy at half-time by checking the concourse screens to console myself with the knowledge that I wasn’t missing anything incredible at any of the other matches I had considered going too. This did not work for me though as I was confronted with the fact that Blackpool had raced into a 3-0 lead in the first half at Bloomfield Road. Devastated is not a strong enough description of how I felt on discovering this news, but getting to Bloomfield Road before the second half there kicked off was not an option so I just had to stick it out at Ewood Park and hope against all the evidence that the second half would see a vast improvement in the spectacle on the field.

The only saving grace for me and those suffering through things with me was that at least things couldn’t get much worse in the second 45 that what we had witnessed in the first 45. This did not seem much to cling onto as the teams emerged for the second half, with the hosts out far in advance of their visitors, given the rumours swirling around me that Bradley Dack injured himself at halftime.

So the Blackburn bench was depleted but that didn’t stop them coming out on the front foot and attempting to force themselves level. They failed to create any chances of note though before their momentum was torpedoed by Maya going down holding his head in the 47th minute. He was up and ready to play again after 30 seconds of physio treatment but it was a long enough break to kill the hosts momentum.

By the 49th minute the cagey nature of the game meant that the fans were clinging at straws to find anything to get excited about. Imagine our joy then when Kaminski skied a clearance onto the roof of the Riverside Stand. Waiting with baited breath for the ball to drop down the slope and into the arms of a fan in the front row (great catch dude) was the most exciting action we’d seen for ages, there were ooo’s echoing round the stadium as we waited for the drop.

The action on the pitch turned incredibly cagey at this point and chances became at even more of a premium at this point of the match. Lewis Travis tried a volley from 30 yards out to equalise for the host but sent it high and wide, then Gallagher tried to do it himself. Single handily weaving his way through the visitors defence before having the ball knocked off his toes as he shaped to shoot.

Gallagher won a freekick on the left in the 56th minute when Tommy Smith pulled him to the floor as he turned to run in behind. Smith picked up a yellow card for this but the freekick was headed straight back the way it came in and clear of the halfway line. I doubt that was what the Blackburn player intended but that’s the way it went off his head.

These 3 incidents in as many minutes finally sparked the home fans into life creating a proper football atmosphere for the first time all day. The hosts finally produced something for the fans to buy into and the fans responded by doing their part to inspire the players to more. It did no good though as the next action of note didn’t occur until the 67th minute and it was a substitution to boot.

Mowbray took another stab at shuffling his pack to help them back into the game. Replacing Bradley Johnson with John Buckley in a heartfelt attempt to force his Rover’s team back into contention to take something from this match. This change almost bore fruit immediately when Buckley won a freekick that was taken quickly and worked brilliantly into the box but it was rolled towards goal like a slug ambling uphill and the hosts were able to hoof it clear. The ref decided to make all of this irrelevant though as he ordered the hosts to re-take the freekick. This one was easily cleared by the Stoke defence.

I noticed at this point that the substitutes were displayed on the screen with their number on the left of their name and on the right a little ‘(s)’ appeared next to their name so that anyone who had stepped out for a moment can easily spot who the newbie on the pitch is. That’s a lovely touch by Blackburn and it would help if other clubs would do similarly, on this singular point only.

Back on the pitch and Rovers really should have drawn themselves level in the 70th minute. A floated cross from the left was headed goalward by Gallagher from 15 yards out which looked to be sailing in till Bonham leapt up to tip it out to the left. The volley from there was always rising and though it eventually ballooned itself way over the bar this passage of play still represented the hosts best period of the match.

In an attempt to turn this threat into goals Mowbray committed to his final substitution of the match with 15 minutes still to play. He bought on Ryan Hedges in the place of the tireless but ineffective Dolan. O’Neill responded to this with a first change of his own in the 79th minute but the man he brought off was not the one every fan in the stadium was expecting.

Smith had gone down 2 minutes earlier and was still in the process of being tended too by the physios when the board went up but Romaine Sawyers was the man that was removed from the fray. He was replaced by Jaden Philogene-Bidace as the match ticked into it’s final 10 minutes to held Stoke see this one out for the 3 points.

They tried to do one better than that in the 81st minute as they came close to doubling their lead. Swinging a cross through the corridor of uncertainty that found Maya free at the back post for what seemed to be a simple tap in, but he was unable to turn it home. Luckily for him though the hosts wasted a golden chance on the break despite Bonham dropping the ball to allow them a second chance at the cherry. The cross back into the box was straight into his waiting arms at the near post though, so chalk that up as another wasted chance for the hosts.

Gallagher tried to take matters into his own hands one last time in the 84th minute, careering down the left wing before cannoning his curling shot off the bar and away. This was the final time Gallagher would try a personal attack on the Stoke goal. Perhaps finally coming so close broke his will to try again. The hosts took this as motivation to mount a concerted push on the visitors goal but it was too little too late, they would create one more chance though.

Before I get to that chance Stoke had a couple more noteworthy moments in the match that I ought to touch on first. The first of these happened in the aftermath of that Gallagher chance as O’Neill made his second and final substitution. This appeared to be more of a chance to waste some time more than anything tactical though as Josh Maya made his way off the pitch as though he was wading through Golden Syrup in the height of a Saharan summer’s day. When he eventually made it to the touchline Stephen Fletcher sprinted on in his place, maybe he missed the time-wasting memo.

Then in the 89th minute Stoke had a credible penalty shout turned down by the ref. Philogene-Bidace cannoned the ball off the hands of a Rover’s defender from a couple of yards away and whilst the defender’s limbs were in an unnatural position the speed of the ball and the point blank range that it hit him from gave him no chance to get them out of the way. It certainly goes under the ‘seen them given’ category of penalty shouts but it would absolutely have been soft.

Blackburn were given 4 minutes of added time to find the equaliser their second half improvement deserved and they came so close to doing so through a cross from the left. The cross was stretched for at the back post and directed towards goal, but once again Bonham was on hand to palm the ball clear. It dropped to a Rovers player at the near post but their snatched shot rippled the net of the side netting rather than the parts of the net that counted. That was THE chance for Rovers to equalise and also the last action of the match as the ref blew the final whistle as Bonham lumped his goal kick upfield.

I almost wrote on my team sheet that the match had ended 0-0 as it had been so long since the goal was scored and there had been little else to cheer all match, but thankfully I noticed the ‘G’ in my notes and realised that someone must have scored. Despite this realisation I was still mightily unimpressed when I checked the concourse screens on my way out and saw that the crowd at Bloomfield Road had been treated to a tidal wave of goals, as Blackpool won that match 6-1.

Shrewsbury had thrown away a 3-0 half-time lead to draw 3-3 with their visitors, Doncaster Rovers, at the final whistle. That match even had a grandstand finish and a 94th minute equaliser for Doncaster. Salford City’s match at home to Barrow would also have been a better call as it ended 2-2 and each team scored in the final 10 minutes. Barrow thought they had won it in the 83rd minute only for Salford to equalise in the 89th minute to secure a point having lead 1-0 at half time.

Even heading across to Rochdale would have provided a better match than the one I suffered through. Rochdale went behind early before sparking a comeback with an equaliser in the 61st minute and sending their fans home ecstatic with a 94th minute winner. At least my journey home was only 2 hours on the train and 2 changes though. A couple down the row from me had travelled all the way from Chile for this one in support of Ben Brereton Diaz and I feel extremely sorry for them that they had such a wasted journey. I hope they find more interesting things to do with the rest of their holiday before heading back home.

For my part I’m back off to London this weekend in search of a decent football match, after suffering back to back dour spectacles in recent weeks. Hopefully Brentford can continue their recent excellent form as I return to see how Christian Eriksen fares against his old team, Tottenham Hotspur, on St. George’s Day.