The Football tourist

70 Years in 7 Minutes

No one will be sleeping on Tyneside tonight as the Toon Army takes over the North-East of England to celebrate their beloved Magpies pinching silverware out of the Scouser’s laps this afternoon at Wembley!!!!

Newcastle United are League Cup Champions

The Toon Army has been starved of success for far too long, their last silverware of any type came in the same year Neil Armstrong took “one small step for man” and that was in the now defunct Inter Cities Fairs Cup.

Sure that was a European success that they had to beat Feyenoord, Sporting Lisbon and Rangers to win, but they also faced a Real Zaragoza team that has spent the last dozen years in the 2nd tier of Spannish football and a Vitoria de Setubal team that was relegated down to the Portuguese 6th tier last summer.

Their final opponents aren’t much to write home about either, Ujpest of Hungary are currently 3rd from bottom in their top tier.

To find Newcastle’s last domestic success we have to go back to a month after Winston Churchill resigned at the end of his second term as Prime Minister and Queen Elizabeth II had been on the throne for just 3 years.

Welcome to 1955, the rationing of World War 2 had only been gone 12 months and Newcastle United step out onto the hallowed turf to face down Manchester City in the FA Cup Final.

That’s a final line-up that doesn’t sound too unusual 70 years later, the players back then were a different breed. Legends on both sides lined up to do battle, with Jackie Milburn lining up alongside Bob Stokoe, Ron Batty and Vic Keeble. The legends facing them were no shrinking violets, Don Revie would later gain notoriety as Leeds United Manager and the England Manager that resigned for more money in the UAE.

The biggest legend on the field that day though has to be Bert Trautmann who fought in the Luftwaffe during the war, but when offered repatriation after the allied victory chose instead to settle in England. He would end up on the losing side in 1955 but a year later his City side would defeat Birmingham City 3-1 despite Mr. Trautmann playing the final 17 minutes with a broken neck!!!

They don’t make players like that anymore.

***Where The Toon Army Worships It’s Heroes***

What they finally make again on Tyneside is trophy winners, as witnessed by 88,513 at Wembley today.

The manager that has led this team to victory is Eddie Howe, who turned Bournemouth into a premier league team but wouldn’t have been many tynesider’s first choice when he was appointed but now he is destined to be remembered as one of the greatest managers in Newcastle’s storied history, maybe even on Bobby Robson levels….

His starting line-up for this historic victory was: Nick Pope, Tino Livramento, Fabian Shar, Kieran Trippier, Joelinton, Bruno Guimaraes, Sandro Tonali, Harvey Barnes, Jacob Murphy, Dan Burn and Alexander Isak. Heroes of the Toon Army one and all.

They will go down in Newcastle folklore as the men that bested the runaway League Champions and returned glory to the North East, beating Liverpool 2-1 at Wembley to secure the silverware.

From the first minute it was clear they wanted it way more than their exalted opposition, whose eyes are clearly trained on the league title, and whilst it took till the dying seconds of the first half for the deadlock to be broken the destination of the title never looked in doubt.

Weekends are the best part of life and this weekend will go down as the best ever for Dan Burn, who followed up his first England call up by thundering a header home to open the scoring and leave the Toon Army staggering towards their half-time pints drowning in extasy.

Newcastle showed no sign of letting that goal go to their heads as they burst out of the traps in the second half and doubled their lead within 7 minutes through talisman Alexander Isak.

Isak has been a nightmare for defenders all season and he proved to be again on this most historic of days, ghosting in unmarked at the near post to snaffle home from point blank range as Caoimhin Kelleher scooped a scuffed shot into his path. It was a scruffy goal, but they all count and not a single soul in the triumphant Toon Army cares how the goals went in, only that they did.

Sure Federico Chiesa scored a 94th minute consolation for Liverpool to ruin the Magpies’ clean sheet, but it couldn’t change the result and the richly deserved victory that reverberated across the country.

Newcastle have been on the up for a few seasons now and this victory is their crowning glory. Drawing momentum and belief from this victory is crucial for them, you’ve all seen what Manchester City have gone onto achieve since breaking their 36 year trophy drought with FA Cup success in 2011.

If 2 goals in 7 minutes ending 70 years of hurt can have a similar effect on the Magic Magpies then we are in for a decade of dominance from the sleeping giants of the North-East. No set of supporters deserves it more than the Toon Army, who are known nationwide for their raucous support that travels long distances in huge numbers to cheer on their team.

Miracles Come In Threes

This season one team has become notorious nationwide for late collapses and this weekend Manchester City were once again at the centre of a devastating collapse.

Unfortunately this time around it wasn’t the home faithful left devastated at the Etihad, as City collapsed the fairy-tale Fa-Cup progress of the Plymouth pilgrims.

Being from the football wasteland of Devon and sacking their ex-boss, Wayne Rooney, on the eve of their visit to the Brentford’s fortress, having not won away from home all season, few gave the Pilgrims a hope in hell on their 3rd round visit to West London…. then a miracle happened.

That victory looked to be a mere blip in their hellish form, as they picked up a mere 2 points from their following four games in January. Then February came and with their 4th round tie against run away Premier League leaders Liverpool looming they masterminded a late comeback victory against West Brom to launch them into it.

Sure that made them unbeaten in 2 games, but they were still expected to be destroyed by the surging scousers who had won their last 4 domestic matches and were fresh off destroying Spurs in the League Cup Semi-Final.

Once again a miracle was required but this time with a partisan home crowd at their backs and once again a miracle was delivered for the crusading pilgrims.

With miracle 2 secured it was back to the league for the mighty green and straight into pulverising Millwall 5-1 at Home Park just 3 days after conquering the Merseyside goliath.

True they followed that up by securing a paltry 2 draws from 3 matches, but this was an improvement on their previous form and has even seen them haul themselves off the bottom of the table. The fairy-tale was on and the next goliath on the list was the wounded champions Man City, but a beast is at it’s most dangerous when it is wounded.

Plymouth would wound it further before reaping it’s wrath.

When Maksym Talovierov headed home from a corner in the 38th minute the pilgrims thought another miracle was on the cards. It would have been a personal miracle for the defender himself to be the deliverer of the miracle as he only joined the pilgrims in January and has family in Kyiv who could have done with the good news.

Unfortunately the miracle was not to be a three-peat as that goal awakened the beast and before half-time it had drawn itself level through 19-year old Nico O’Reilly, who doubled his tally to draw the beast into the lead and bring the miracle collapsing down on the Pilgrims heads with 14 minutes left in proceedings.

The final nail in the miracle’s coffin was hammered home by Kevin De-Bruyne in the final minute, but by then the damage had been done by one of City’s new generation of world beaters who has had no part in their collapses and will cause many more for opponents in the coming decade.

Plymouth’s pilgrims may have headed home with their hopes destroyed but with the momentum of their miraculous cup-run fuelling their belief that miracles exist they have pulled themself off the foot of the championship table and have 11 games to bridge the 6 points still separating them from safety.

Miracles can happen and maybe the collapsing of their FA-Cup fairy-tale is so they can focus on making the miracle of survival a reality. I’ll be praying for the pilgrims.

As for the task of collapsing Man City’s miracle resurgence, that now falls on Plymouth’s south coast neighbours AFC Bournemouth. From Devon to Dorset the torch passes.

The Great Form Flip

So Manchester City avoided yet another embarrassing collapse, Liverpool rebounded from their derby day disappointment to claw out a victory over Wolves, Everton held off Crystal Palace to become the Premier League’s form team, Chloe Kelly became happy again and AFC Wimbledon beat Salford City to move into the automatic play-off places in League 2, so what??

Something much more miraculous occurred in East London on Saturday, Brentford won their third away game in a row!!!

To put this into perspective it took until our visit to Goodison Park on 23rd November for us to pick up our first away point of the season and it wasn’t till our post Christmas trip to the Amex Stadium that we doubled our tally on the road.

Our home form stood in stark contrast to that abysmal away form, dropping just 2 points at our fortress before it was finally breached by Nottingham Forest on 21st December.

The first home loss of the season was the tipping point that initiated the great form flip, as we have failed to win at home since. This dreadful home form in 2025 can at least be mitigated by the hellish run of opponents we have been faced with, since Forest we have seen Arsenal, Manchester City, Liverpool and Spurs visit our heavenly patch of West London.

Facing the current top 4 in back to back home games was always going to be difficult, so maybe it’s no surprise that our only point in that run came from glorious comeback from 2-0 down in the final 10 minutes against the collapsing champions.

Losing to Spurs without laying a glove on them is just plain embarrassing, though perhaps not as humiliating as being dumped out of the FA Cup at home to a bunch of managerless Pilgrims that were pinned to the bottom of the Championship. A whole league separated us from the our Devon visitors, though having a front row seat for the game I couldn’t have told you that from the 90 minutes.

Our saving grace so far in 2025 has been our travelling prowess.
That draw at the Amex being followed 8 days later by a 5-0 demolition of the St. Mary’s saints, though few would have guessed that destroying a team on track to be the worst in Premier League history would signal a change of luck on our travels.

We followed up that masterclass by taking over South London with a 2-1 win at Selhurst Park, just having to hold on after they scored their consolation 5 minutes from time, despite 3 home games in the interim.

Our third away win in a row came this past weekend out in East London against the Hammers, who Shade shattered just 4 minutes after kick-off.

This third away win on the trot saw my beloved bees make it 4 away games unbeaten picking up 10 points along the way, having managed just a single point from our previous 9 such matches.

Our home form has gone in the opposite direction with just a single point secured from our last 5 games at the Gtech, having harvested a bumper 22 points form the previous 9.

Eighteen is how many home and away games respectively we get each season and this time it seems that someone has decided to play the ultimate prank on us by flipping our form on it’s head.

With relegation zone Leicester City our travel destination this Friday followed by the visit to the Gtech of the revived Everton team under David Moyes it seems that our great form flip is destined to continue through to at least March.

I expect the form to flip back at that point though as our travels take then take us to Bournemouth, Newcastle, Arsenal and Nottingham.

Enjoy the great form flip whilst it lasts, it may soon flip right back.

Devon Double Dreamland…. Denied

After Plymouth shattered the aura of invincibility of a Liverpool team tearing up both Premier and Champions Leagues, the appetite for giant-killing made its way across Dartmoor National Park to Exeter City and their St. James Park.

The giant-killing they were looking for was Nuno Espirito Santo’s high flying Nottingham Forest, a huge 59 places above them in the pyramid and on course to return to the Champions League next season.

Nothing much for a team struggling near the bottom of League One to hope for then, but this is Devon and the FA Cup….

It took just 5 minutes for the Grecians to take the lead through the opportunism of Josh Magennis to pounce of Carlos Miquel’s handling error and stab home from point blank range.

Sure that lead only lasted 10 minutes before they were pegged back and when Taiwo Awoniyi fired Forest into the lead 7 minutes before the break it seemed that the hosts hopes were slipping through their fingers.

Clearly no-one told Magennis, who scooped home the rebound of his own header 5 minutes into the second half to claw the hosts level.

Having survived the rest of the half it looked to be collapsing in front of their eyes as Ed Turns saw red on his debut for kneecapping Morgan Gibbs-White in full flow 3 minutes from time, but the hosts held on to force extra time.

A gargantuan backs-to-the-wall defensive masterclass was called for to survive 33 minutes a man light against the surprise package of the Premier League and that’s exactly what the Grecians delivered, now all they needed was the fairytale ending.

Victory on penalties would’ve worked, but that’s when David finally succumbed to Goliath.

Reece Cole and Angus MacDonald were the unfortunate souls to be denied from 12 yards crushing the dreams of a Devon Double in the FA Cup over 2 of the top 3 teams in England.

So near and yet so far, but surely pushing one of the best teams in the country so close after playing a third of the 120 minutes a man light will inspire them to launch themselves clear of the drop zone, currently just 5 points below them.

A trip to bottom of the league Cambridge United this Saturday is a perfect place to start.

Devon Heaven

Sometimes there are things so beautiful they light up a whole county and the lives of many beyond it’s borders, an FA Cup upset is one such thing.

This weekend a team in Green from the sunny coasts of Devon and a city better known for it’s naval history than it’s footballing prowess provided that delicious upset against a team that has been conquering European and English football all season long.

Plymouth Argyle have been enduring disastrous league from all season with just 5 wins from 30 matches, scoring just 29 goals along the way, and pinned to the bottom of the Championship currently sitting 4 points from safety.

Sure they secured a comeback win against promotion hopefuls West Bromwich Albion but that was their first league win in 13 weeks so there would only be one winner when all-conquering Liverpool came to town.

That’s what the logic says anyway, but since when has that mattered when facing the magic of the cup.

Arne Slot decided to switch up his team for the tie and even though his second-string team commanded 75% of possession their seaside stroll fell apart when Harvey Elliot blocked a flick towards goal from the edge of the area to gift the Pilgrims a chance to answer all their prayers from 12 yards.

Ryan Hardie gave the Pilgrims the answer they wanted, sending Caoimhin Kelleher the wrong way and sending the home fans into delirium.

With 37 minutes to hold out few would have backed a team that conceded 63 goals this season to last the distance, but with divine favour on their side they succeeded.

Sunday 9th February 2025 will be a date remembered forever in Plymouth and across Devon for this incredible victory.

Their league form may be abysmal, but in the cup Argyle have now conquered 2 Premier League teams and tomorrow they will find out who in next to feel their divine wrath.

UP THE GREENS

Collapse of a Dynasty

In May 2024, as last season drew to a close I published the following blog, https://the-football-tourist.com/2024/05/22/the-threat-of-dynasties/, warning of the threat that Man City posed to the competitive nature of football as they crowned a dynasty that looked unassailable.

I needn’t have worried, it seems City are determined to destroy their dynasty all by themselves.

The strange thing is that it started off so well, with 4 wins in a row in the league to start the season through August and September. October saw them win 5 of their 6 games, including big wins over Sparta Prague and Slovan Bratislava in the Champions League Group Stage. Things started to go wrong in November

First came a loss at Bournemouth with an 83rd minute Josko Gvardiol strike not being enough to prevent City’s 32 game unbeaten run, stretching back to 6th December 2023, from being smashed on the south coast.

Losing their unbeaten streak must’ve hit City like a freight train as they went on to lose the next 3 games on the bounce and ended the month with a 3-3 draw at home to Feyenoord.

The worst part for City was that, 4-0 home humiliation by Spurs aside, they had actually taken the lead in each game. Foden had given them the lead 4 minutes into the Sporting Lisbon game, but then 3 goals in the 10minutes either side of half time turned their joy to ashes. The last of those goals was a penalty and then City shot themselves in the foot again by giving away another one 10 minutes from time.

Self-inflicted has become City’s modus operandi ever since, with 2 goals in the final 12 minutes and 3 goals in the last 16 minutes being the way they chose to lose to throw away leads against Brighton and Feyenoord respectively.

They took this MO of late collapses to the extreme during the Manchester Derby on 15th December 2024. Huge favourites going into the match, against a United team struggling for form, they took the lead in the 36th minute and held it all the way till the 88th.

Just 2 minutes from victory they couldn’t help themselves but give away a penalty to their hated rivals on their home turf, which Bruno Fernandes smashed home before Amad Diallo administered the knockout blow in the dying seconds to send the away fans into extasy.

City fans might have thought it couldn’t get any worse and their start to 2025 looked to confirm their return to form, following up a 4-1 win against West Ham United with an EIGHT-0 win against Salford City in the FA Cup.

Then the wobbles returned on a trip to London and Brentford’s Gtech fortress. The fortress had been trembling in the weeks before their arrival, having been first breached by Nottingham Forest, and when City took a late 2 goal lead it looked like the fortress was truly crumbling.

What had been forgotten was that it was City that were the crumblers now conceding 2 goals in the final 10 minutes to throw away the victory, topped off with a 92nd minute headed equaliser from Christian Noorgaard.

Any hopes that the collapses were resigned to history after a 6-0 destruction of Ipswich in their next game were crushed in Paris.

Going into the must-win Champions League showdown with PSG off the back of such a commanding victory should’ve been enough to power City over the line in the city of love and when they took the lead with 2 goals in 3 minutes just after half-time all looked rosy.

Then came the collapse.

It took just 7 minutes from taking the lead for City to collapse and let PSG equalise. From there it only got worse and by the time Goncalo Ramos topped off the host’s victory with 4th goal in the 93rd minute I had City fans I knew messaging me rants about their team.

How the mighty have fallen.

The worst collapse came yesterday at the Emirates, as they equalised through Erling Haaland in the 55th minute only to be 3-1 down within 7 minutes and Arsenal didn’t even have to work hard for those 2 goals. Another double would follow before the final whistle as City slumped to a 5-1 loss against the team they beat to the final last season, their 4th title in a row.

Yesterday was the day it truly hit home for me just how swift and total the collapse of this Dynasty has been, 15 points behind top of the table Liverpool and looking like complete Jekyll and Hyde basket cases.

You never know which City will turn up anymore, though their home form has been much better than their away form in 2025, but at least things get easier soon with just Newcastle United, Liverpool and Real Madrid lying in wait after an FA Cup 4th round trip to Leyton Orient next weekend.

Wouldn’t it be brilliant if League One Orient could dump City out of the cup?

Double Sucker Punch

Some things in life just aren’t meant to be, like Manchester City holding onto a lead.

Two late goals worked out really well for us last week as we came from 2-0 down to claim a draw against the 4-time defending champions who are currently in the worst crisis of their Guardiola era.

Within that era only one team has knocked the conquerors off top-spot come the end of the season and although they are under new management this season, no-one expects an easy game when Liverpool come to town.

That’s why I was still on cloud 9 when I arrived at the Gtech on Saturday 35 minutes after kick-off, after hours of delays on my trains to London, to find the score still at 0-0 and Brentford giving as good as they got all the way to half-time.

From minute one of the second half it was clear we would struggle to find a breakthrough against the unbreakable wall of Ibrahim Konate and Virgil Van Dijk, but also that we would not be broken down easily.

Nathan Collins and Sepp Van Den Berg played a blinder and with the support of Christian Norgaard, Mads Roerslev and Keane Lewis-Potter they kept the mercurial talents of Luiz Diaz, Dominic Szoboszlai and Mohammed Salah quiet throughout the half.

Sure there were a few times I was wiping the sweat from my brow as Liverpool surged forth on the break only to be stopped at the last second. There were times throughout the half where I was certain they were about to score only for a goal-line block or a last-ditch tackle to maintain our clean sheet.

There was no denying that they had been the better team in the 2nd half but as the board was raised for stoppage time at the end of the 90 scores were still level and it felt like a huge achievement to be walking away with a point from a match that had been last-ditch defending for much of the half.

Sometimes luck just falls in your favour though and after defending so resolutely it was only right for us to secure a point, right? Wrong…

They say it is the mark of champions that they find a way to win even when not at their best and on Saturday Liverpool showed the mark of champions by hitting us with a double stoppage time sucker punch.

Darwin Nunez had replaced Luiz Diaz in the 65th minute but only managed a few headers into Mark Flekken’s arms within the regulation 90. So for him to be the one, so oft maligned by his own fans, to administer the punces was gut wrenching.
First being found in acres of space 8 yards out by a deflected Trent Alexander-Arnold cross to fire home then, with Brentford chasing an equaliser, latching onto the end of a Harvey Elliot through ball to slot home in acres of space.

A gut punching ending to what had been an exceptional performance in many ways from the Bees, but Thomas Frank didn’t call the visitors ‘The best team in the world’ for no reason.

Results like this solidify that claim because there is little doubt that no other team has shown such determination against such a brilliant defensive display at our fortress.

Brentford were brilliant but, with their double sucker punch, Liverpool were just better.

**The Man in the Centre of The Champions Victory**

Due to financial contraints I will not be back to the Gtech till at least the end of Feb, but in the meantime I wish the Bees all the Best.

The Law of Manchester

Sometimes in great cities there exist great divides that can only ever be bridged by Great Men; Manchester is one such place, City-United one such divide and Denis Law was one of very few such men ever to have lived.

Born is the northern suburbs of Aberdeen in February 1940, whilst the world was busy tearing itself apart in WW2, it was down in the far southern city of Manchester that he would proceed to tear the world apart in his own inimitable fashion.

Sure he started his career over the Pennines with Huddersfield Town but it was only when he moved across to Manchester that things really took off.

Bill Shankly tried to tempt him to join the history being made at Anfield before Law decided that the Blue side of Manchester was the place for him.

How different things could have been if he had stayed there for more than a single season before being tempted by the bright lights of Turin. Though he would only play a single season for Torino before being tempted back to Manchester, landing on the red side of town this time with Matt Busby at the helm rebuilding United in the wake of the devastating Munich air disaster.

Part of that rebuild saw Law linking up with the duo he will be linked to forever more, George Best and Bobby Charlton.

As an integral part of United’s holy trinity he more than paid back his record transfer fee,£115,000, multiple times over as a mercurial striker whose goals saw United win the FA Cup in 1963, League titles in 1965 and 1967, plus the Ballon d’Or in 1964.

His crowning glory should have been firing United to their historic European Cup triumoh in 1968, only for a persistent knee injury to rob him of the night that should have been rightfully his. The King may have missed out on the greatest match, but his place in United history was secured long before that.

Having been part of the United’s Holy Trinity it’s only fitting that’s the final United game of his lifetime was topped off by a trinity of goals from Amad Diallo that secured the most miraculous of comebacks.

Law’s own playing association with United wouldn’t end quite so successfully as he returned to City for the 1973/74 season, his last as a professional player and put the final nail in United’s coffin with a delicious backheel goal that rubber-stamped his old employer’s relegation.

Other results meant that United would’ve gone down no matter the result of this match, but that hasn’t stopped that goal turning Law into a City hero.

A man that remains a hero with 2 of the biggest rival fanbases in the North-West of England more than 50 seasons after his retirement and can unite them both in grief at his passing is truly worthy of the epithet ‘THE GREAT’

How City could do with another player of his like to join them this month as their last match of The Lawman’s life saw them throw away a 2-0 lead and certain victory against Brentford, a team that spent his whole career yo-yoing between the Third and Fourth Divisions.

Given his Scottish routes and his final competitive games spent representing Scotland at the 1974 World Cup, Law’s interest in London teams is debatable but I had to get a London link in there somewhere.

Brazilian great Pele once said that Denis Law would fit into the Brazilian National team and given the football they were playing at that time, not to mention their 3 World Cup wins during the glory days of Law’s professional career that’s one hell of a compliment and extremely well-deserved.

The Pilgrim’s Progress

***Winners and Losers, but not Necessarily in that Order***

On paper this FA Cup 3rd round tie only ever had one winner,
what a shame the game has to be played on grass.

Plymouth Argyle have had a terrible time away from Home Park this season with no wins on the road in any competition, their last such win coming at Milton Keynes in their final pre-season friendly.

To throw further water on the Pilgrim’s fire of hope their hosts have the second best home record in the Premier League all season, the Gtech Community Stadium is Brentford’s fortress.

Okay, so Nottingham Forest had finally breached the gates in the last game, as my last blog explores, but surely the rebuild had gone well enough to keep out the managerless team pinned to the bottom of the Championship and had only scored 24 goals in 25 games so far this season?

Apparently not…

It shouldn’t have mattered that we put out a much changed side as it still included heavyweights Mikkel Damsgaard, Kevin Shade and Mathias Jensen not to mention the return from injury of Rico Henry…

Having been out with a knee injury Rico was back on the grass again and the best player on a Brentford team that looked cobbled together from spectators in The Orchard bar.

Every pass in the final third was either overhit or to the feet of someone in Pilgrim green, even the Pilgrims that had made their way all the way to the big smoke from the depths of Devon couldn’t help pointing this out.

It took them just 15 minutes to break out the mocking chants “how s*** must you be, we’re drawing away” being a personal favourite.

The embarrassment emanating through the home stands was palpable at points, even I was susceptible to it uttering the words “we are making them look competent” in my first half voice notes.

Our backline of Rico, Sepp Van Den Berg, Kim Ji-Soo and Mads Roerslev had never played together as a 4 before and at times they were bailed out hard by the pilgrims profligacy and the stellar work of Hakon Valdimarsson behind them to keep the scores level all the way upto Rico’s withdrawal at the 63rd minute mark.

By this point it was abundantly clear that the big guns were needed to turn this one around for the hosts so on came Keane Lewis Potter, Bryan Mbuemo and Yoane Wissa in hopes of propelling us into Round 4.

This failed spectacularly with Plymouth still looking the more likely to score and eventually they did.

Things had gone so far off the boil that I had spent most of the second half praying for a goal to save us all from extra time and penalties, but they do say be careful what you wish for and with 8 minutes to go all the Pilgrims prayers were answered.

Morgan Whittaker was the man to win it for the visitors and in front of incoming manager Miron Muslic too, which can hardly do his chances of being a huge part of their push for survival any harm at all.

I was too distraught at just how good we were making Plymouth look that I didn’t see the goal but as soon as I heard the thunderous noise from the away end I knew the Bees were well and truly smoked.

From the second we went behind the last 8 minutes were just a formality to get to the whistle and rubber stamp the Pilgrims progress.

They have been drawn at home to Liverpool, the biggest team at the best venue they could hope for. I wish the Pilgrims the best of luck for that match and the rest of the season.

As for my beloved Bees, good luck to us tonight against a Manchester City team that returned to form with an 8-0 (eight – nil) demolition of Salford City. Judging from Saturday, we need it.

***Welcome Back Rico, your hour is up***

2025: A Baptism of Fire

***The Fortress Needs Rebuilding Fast***

Brentford’s home form has been their saving grace this season.

Then the fortress was finally breached by high-flying Forest in the dying weeks of 2024 and it appears repairing the holes in the outer walls will take sometime, cause today Arsenal sauntered in and strolled out with all the riches going.

Worst of all is that they didn’t even have to try that hard cause all the defenders were either dead or hungover.

Referee Peter Bankes wasn’t far off that either, with some exceedingly questionable calls scattered throughout the match.

Things turned so bad in the second half that I decided to commit the mortal sin of all football fans, I left early…. like 66th minute early, but I just couldn’t stand staying and missing out on the family New Years celebrations I had waiting across town.

Few people would blame me though given just how abysmal my beloved Bees became the second their visitors equalised just before the half-hour mark.

We fell apart like a house of cards from the moment Gabriel Jesus snuffled home a scrappy equaliser for the Gunners, shooting down the hopes of the hosts in the process, just a minute after Brentford’s second goal was cleared off the line by a skittish David Raya on his return to the Gtech.

Having taken the lead through the mercurial Mbuemo turning his marker inside out before slotting a reverse shot between Raya and his near post in the 13th minute we should have doubled our lead through Keane Lewis-Potter, whose weaving charge down the right resulted in a shot that squirmed though Raya’s gloves.

Seeing this saved and then suffering Jesus’s sucker punch sucked the soul out of the hosts and this was pounced upon twice in the first 10 minutes of the second half as first Mikel Merino, not nearly woolly enough in front of goal, then Gabriel Martinelli stabbed home just 180 seconds apart to secure 3 goals and 3 points for the Gunners of North London.

Brentford were abysmal between the restart and the hour mark, when I decided to suffer no more, and unless they can rebuild the fortress walls quicker than the Flash they are in danger of crumbling to dust.

Forest and Arsenal have reduced the walls to rubble now all City, Liverpool and Spurs have to do is continue the looting for the next month.

Our next easy home game is Everton on February 25th, but at least we have away games at Southampton, Palace, West Ham and Leicester to boost us up the table right…….

At Least 2025 can only get better.