The Football tourist

The Fortress Stands

The scale of the challenge facing Brentford’s unbeaten home record became crystal clear when the Magpies clattered one off the bar less than 2 minutes after kick-off.

Newcastle United are a Champions League level team now and they had come to our fortress to knock us down to size.

They forgot one very important thing though…. no one defeats Brentford in their fortress.

The Toon army were given a lot of hope in the first half though, as the visitors played their hosts off the park, only to head down the tunnel at half-time with the scores at 2-a-piece.

Guarantees are few and far between in football, but one that has held true all season is ‘there will be goals at the Gtech’ and so it was again, with Newcastle quickly pegging their hosts back each time they went behind in the first-half.

That’s right, despite being played off the park in midfield for most of the half it was the hosts who took the lead twice.

Firstly through the virtuoso talents of Bryan Mbuemo twisting this way and that to tie his markers in knots before smashing home from 12 yards out past a perplexed Nick Pope in the 6th minute. Then restoring their lead just before the half-hour as Yoane Wissa pounced on an under-hit backpass to steal in and side foot home from the edge of the box.

Alexander Isak should have put Newcastle ahead earlier in the half, having drawn them level with a diving header from 6 yards out just 6 minutes after they went behind, but he fluffed his lines at the last second, dithering on the ball just long enough to allow Mark Flekken to palm the ball out from under his feet and save a certain goal.

Not to worry though as the visitors would be behind for only 4 minutes this time before Harvey Barnes took advantage of time and space in the area to spin and slam the ball home across the face of Flekken and into the bottom right corner.

Neither set of fans could doubt the entertainment of what they were witnessing, but to call some of the defending circumspect would be generous in the extreme.

The host’s defence tightened up immeasurably after the break, the visitors did not.

Having seen their visitors burst out of the traps in the first half the hosts decided to see if they could take it as well as dish it out in the second as a devastating break from midfield ended with Wissa witnessing his shot palmed onto the post by Pope.

It was abundantly clear that only one team would win it in this second half but when the hosts 3rd goal arrived the circumstances were almost comical, unless you’re a Magpies fan that is.

Flekken launched a free-kick forward from half-way and it sailed over everyone to land at the feet of centre-back Nathan Collins, who took it in stride and side footed it across Pope and into the net with a single flick of his left foot.

Despite running the deflated visitors ragged for the rest of the match it appeared a 4th goal wouldn’t come for the hosts, until it did with just 4 seconds of the regulation 90 left to play.

Christian Norgaard pouncing on a loose touch in midfield to feed the ball to Mbuemo, who then slid it right into the stride of Kevin Shade and it was Shade, the hat-trick hero against the foxes last week, that would cap off another home victory for the West Londoners with a cheeky chip over the sprawling body of the onrushing Pope.

The scoreline should have been even worse for the Tynesiders when Pope was dispossessed in midfield by Mbuemo and his shot towards an open goal had to be cleared off the line by Dan Burn, Pope you owe him drinks all week for that one.

At the final whistle The Magpies were sent north through Storm Darragh licking their wounds, but with the chance for revenge in just over a weeks time at home in the League Cup Quarter Final.

See you there

A Ruud Awakening

1,700 partisan fans in full voice cheering you on having travelled south for hours to support you and you new manager watching on, that would be enough motivation for most players to put in their best performance

Leicester City missed that memo…

Brentford played them off the park from minute 1 to minute 101, there were 11 minutes added time across the halves and everyone of them the travelling fans could have done without.

Whatever rot had set in under Steve Cooper was on full display for the incoming Ruud Van Nistelrooy today. All the way through the team, from the strikers back to the goalkeeper there was a lack of cohesion and a dearth of quality that cut the bottom out of their few forays forward.

Sure they took the lead in the 21st minute with what was, to my memory, their only shot on target all match, but within 3 minutes the scores were equal and a mere 7 minutes after Facundo Buonanotte had given them the lead they were behind. They never looked like scoring again.

In truth, they were only ahead due to some exceedingly profligate finishing by the hosts front 3, but Yoane Wissa and particularly Kevin Shade would soon more than make up for their early waywardness.

Shade got the assist for Wissa’s opener at the end of a slick and speedy attack that got the ball from goal kick to nestling in the net in less than 10 seconds.

Having set up the equaliser Shade took over the scoring duties for the rest of the match. He threw down the gauntlet to the visiting defence and proceeded to rip them apart.

His one-man masterclass in dismantling the opposition opened in the 28th minute and the brace was completed with the final kick of the half, before the visitors trudged down the tunnel to a chorus of boos from the away end.

Shade wasn’t stopping there though completing his hat-trick just before the hour mark and just in time, as the maestro of manoeuvres was removed from the field to rapturous applause in the 70th minute.

That his replacement garnered less applause speaks to the virtuosity of his performance, but I’m sure Igor Thiago would have hoped to be the main event on his home debut having been out injured for the last 3 months.

Unfortunately for him, by the time he was introduced to the fray the flailing foxes had been well and truly eviscerated. His absence from the scoresheet was the only minor blot on a glorious day for the home faithful. whose beloved Bees remain unbeaten this season at their Gtech fortress.

For the travelling faithful it was a bracing reality check after the high of yesterday’s appointment of a new first team Manager.

Whilst for the players being booed down the tunnel after each half, having your fans chant “this is embarrassing” at you 10 minutes from time, then agreeing with the home fans at the final whistle that “We’re f***ing s***” over and over again should serve as a very Ruud awakening for them of just how much they’ll have to improve to stay up.

As for Ruud Van Nistelrooy, watching on from the stands, well at least he now knows the scale of the gargantuan task he now faces. On the plus side though, in the words of a visiting fan on the train after the game ‘at least we can’t get any worse’.

Over to you Ruud.

***Coming Onto Our Turf? We Will Rip You To Shreds!!!***

Champions Capitulate

Having just finished the last of 6 days in a row at work I returned to my flat in dire need of a boost, so naturally I checked today’s football scores and damn did I find what I needed.

Tonight the Etihad witnessed a new low in the history of it’s Guardiola era, throwing away an unassailable lead in the final 15 minutes of a match. Oh how the mighty have fallen…

This summer, after their unprecedented 4th successive title, I wrote a blog about the new dynasty ready to conquer football and how much of a threat they were to the unpredictability that makes our beautiful game the life blood of so many souls.

So to see them collapsing like a house of cards, shattering their aura of invincibility and returning them to the plain of mere humans is a glorious thing, except for the home fans obviously.

Losing 4 games in a row was bad enough but collapsing so swiftly at home in the Champions League has to be a new low, especially when a lot of your best available players last the full 90.

Erling Haaland opened the host’s account from 12 yards in the dying embers of the first half and when he completed his brace just 10 minutes of game time later to put City 3-0 up, Ikay Gundogan providing the filling in the Haaland sandwich, the game looked sewn up.

A triple substitution 20 minutes from the end derailed City’s train and sent them to collapse city. Conceding the first of the comeback 5 mins after the substitution was a bad sign and from there it was all downhill.

Sure it took till the penultimate minute of the match for the inevitable equaliser to come, but the point is it feels inevitable now that City will collapse if you apply the right pressure.

For City to go from ‘every game is theirs to win’ to ‘just wait till they capitulate’ months after their latest title should be a shock for the home faithful, but to me it’s a reminder that nothing lasts forever.

Long may it remain so and long may the glorious unpredictability of the beautiful game be it’s only constant.

Predictably Passion-less

Logistics of my larger life outside this blog has required that I stay in Manchester for the last few weeks and I’ve been to two games in that time that looked intriguing on paper.

Curzon Ashton of the National League North hosting the mighty Mansfield Town sitting in League One had all the markings of a huge cupset in the making in the FA Cup 1st round proper, so off I went. After all who wouldn’t love to document such a brilliant underdog story.

The only problem with this glorious plan was that it was dependant on the hosts turning up, playing well and winning. They failed on all 3 counts…

Even before the ref killed off the slim hopes of a contest with a 15th minute red card, that was soft as butter on a hot plate in the middle of an Arizonian summer, the Nash were being ripped to shreds by the visiting Stags.

As soon as the Stags converted the penalty that accompanied the dismissal all hopes of an upset crumbled into dust, but I still had another 75 minutes to last in the freezing conditions.

Surviving that surrounded by home fans infuriated by both the red card and watching their team submit meekly to a 4-0 defeat.

Whilst Mansfield moved on to an all League One 2nd round tie at Stevenage I headed just down the road to the Etihad stadium 6 days later hoping for a more exciting and competitive match. I was to be desperately disappointed by what I found at that sparsely populated arena, the home of Man City being an admittedly foolish venue to visit hoping for an gripping encounter

I hadn’t been to a WSL match in so long that I’d forgotten that there are only 4 teams that have any hope of winning matches and Spurs aren’t one of them.

I was about to get an in-depth memory refresher when Kadija ‘Bunny’ Shaw gave the hosts the lead a mere 23seconds after the first whistle by pouncing on a schoolgirl error in the visiting defence.

City had doubled their lead earlier than Curzon had been reduced in number at the weekend and by the time Sandy Magiver doubled her brace less than 30 seconds after Jill Roord had snaffled the host’s third the game was well and truly over.

This time it was the visitors heading home with their tails between their legs and straight into a home humiliation by their big North London rivals.

As soon as that first goal nestled in the net I knew I was in for a 2nd dud game of the week and I haven’t been back to a stadium since.

I go to football for the unpredictability and an atmosphere I can lose myself in, both of which have been in shockingly short supply recently. This weekend I had opportunities to see a new stadium, an offer I rarely pass up, but with the Mazuma Stadium home a Shrimps team sinking faster than a dropped anchor into the Mariana trench of non-league I knew the result to be a home loss already and had no desire to travel so far just for another one of those.

As you may have guessed having read this far, my passion for the beautiful game is hanging by a thread at the moment and the blog is suffering as a consequence.

This is a passion project that brings me no financial rewards and thus rests entirely on that passion.

I am giving myself another chance to rekindle that passion with back to back Brentford games as November gives way to December’s darkness. Over to you my Beloved Bees.

Indefensible

Since my last blog I’ve been to two more matches and yet this blog is going to be about neither of them. Instead I’m going to highlight a trend that is undermining the great ascent of my team.

Thomas Frank was right to say, after Brentford’s 4-3 victory over Ipswich Town 10 days ago, that the home team were not upto their normal standard in the first 45 minutes. If the Tractor Boys had a finisher on the pitch the halftime score would have been far closer to 0-6 than the 2-2 it was on the day.

Our defence was almost non-existent for the entire first half and the waves of relief reverberating around the Gtech every few minutes, as Ipswich passed up another gilt-edged chance were palpable.

It was a relief that we were playing a team clearing struggling to adjust to the pace of the Premier League, having only managed 6 goals in their first 8 games whilst conceding 16.

By the end of the match they had scored another third of their goals for the season and added just a 5th to their number conceded, but that was enough to keep them as one of just 3 teams to have conceded more than their hosts all season.

Brentford have become known for their fast starts and attacking play, but they should also be known for the inability to defend them. Leading in 9 matches out of 10 this season is all well and good, as is scoring 9 times in our last 2 home games, but the main statistic that focuses my mind is that only 4 of those leads have been converted into wins.

We relied on a penalty and a stoppage time winner to sneak past the stuttering tactors, even conceding what appeared to be a last minute equaliser when the visitors were down to 10 men.

This defensive vulnerability reared it’s ugly head again on Monday at the cottage down the road. Vitaly Janelt had given us a trademark lead with a belter from 25 yards early in the match and for once it looked like we might actually weather the onslaught.

Then stoppage time happened and Harry Wilson happened and, just like last October at Old Trafford, all the away fans were left trying to come to terms with what they’d just seen.

We had thrown away a lead again and maintained our 0% record away from home this season, despite leading all but one of the matches. Such a record is utterly indefensible!!

***Score many, concede many. The Blackpool method***

In the 2022-23 season Brentford topped the table for most points dropped from winning positions and this season we are soaring clear at the top of that table once more.

The reason for this is clearly not an inability to score, only Man City have scored more goals thus far this season, but our indefensible defensive record, only Ipswich, Wolves and Southampton have conceded more than us.

Such defensive fragility would be understandable if we were dealing with new injuries or trying to integrate new players, but all our current defensive injuries are hangovers from last season and our only new signings in the summer were attacking players.

The defensive fragilities we have are mindset based and that makes them far harder to solve without a change coming from the top. That change has to be based on the ethos we cultivate at the club around defending and it has to happen soon because this has now been dragging us down from our rightful place in the league for far too long.

***Victorious, but far from Exceptional***

On my train back north I passed a group of drunk passengers who spotted my Brentford shirt and congratulated me on the Ipswich win. I couldn’t accept their congratulations because for me winning the match was not enough.

I wanted us to have deserved the victory and after the display of defensive ineptitude I had witnessed I didn’t feel we deserved to win. To be clear, Ipswich didn’t deserve to win either with all the chances they squandered but a draw would have left me feeling more fulfilled with the use of my day than that win did.

Just because they’re my team that I love doesn’t mean that I won’t pick things apart when they need to be and highlight where improvements can be made.

Next to visit our hive are the Cherries of the South Coast fresh off beating the best team in the country 4 seasons in a row and if we defend like we have so far this season they will rip us to shreds.

Yes, we are at the highest level we have been in decades. Yes, some of the attacking play we can put together is scintillating and makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. But also yes, some of our defensive play is distressingly shambolic this season and no amount of other good qualities can make that indefensible fragility defensible

The Ultimate Poisoned Chalice

Whatever Erik Ten Hag said to his team 9 days ago at Old Trafford was more than enough to turn the tide of the match that seemed to be slipping through his team’s fingers, but that comeback was not enough to save his job.

I was at work when a young lad broke the news to me and remembering the wave of enthusiasm that swept him down the tunnel it seems insane to me that he has been sacked just over a week later.

Though in truth that victory was a blip on the bleak landscape of results for the team once most feared in the land under Sir Alex Ferguson, who had only 2 other wins all season.

Beating Fulham with an 87th minute opener/winner and a 3-0 win against a newly promoted Southampton team that finished the 90 with 10 men are hardly the season highlights United are used too and adding a 2nd London team to their scalp collection was never going to be enough.

Sure they are unbeaten in the Europa League, but a triplet of draws is not what the home faithful expect from their team.

United fans of a certain vintage still remember the Fergie teams that took their team to the top of the world and in the 11 years since he stepped down from the helm they have cycled through 8 managers searching for a swift return to their perch without success.

They tried their god’s chosen successor, four of the best foreign coaches ever to grace the English club game and now they turn to their third ex-star player to steady the ship for the next permanent manager to try and right it permanently.

The young lad who broke the news to me wants Gareth Southgate to take the job, but even he admitted it was likely to be a foreign coach that takes over in the hot seat.

Many news outlets are reporting that Sporting Lisbon’s coach Ruben Amorim, who secured their first Premeira Liga title in 19 years and has them currently celebrating a 100% record this season, is being lined up to be next on the manager’s carousel at Old Trafford.

His record of turning around the fortunes of a sleeping giant should fill hearts full of hope in Old Trafford, but only time will tell if he can repeat the trick in North West England.

With his Potential new charges starting a run of 4 home games on the bounce, topped and tailed by Leicester City, now is a good time to join the team and win over the home fans.

Jump on the carousel and see how far you get Mr. Amorim, but with the record of those who have come before you I will wish you all the luck in the world.

Till there are new owners and the new stadium goes through it’s the ultimate poisoned chalice, one that is impossible to turn down.

De Ja Vu, Again!!

At half-time the home team were being booed down the tunnel, with chants of “you’re getting sacked in the morning” hounding the heels of Erik Ten Hag.

At full-time the same team were riding a wave of euphoria down the tunnel, with Ten Hag being hailed as the second coming by the home faithful.

If there was ever a game of 2 halves… this was it!

**Most Home Fans First Choice For A Half-Time Substitution**

Neither team was truly incredible in the first 45 minutes, but it was the Bees that edged it in both possession, aggression and chances.

Scoring in the first minute has been Brentford’s move recently, but this time Ethan Pinnock opened their account in the final minutes of added time at the end of the half.

The home defence disintegrated for that opener and perhaps Pinnock and his visiting back 4 colleagues took too much notice of that as they proceeded to disintegrate themselves in the next 45.

***Brentford’s Unhappy Hunting Ground, Doused In Foreboding***

Taking the lead at Old Trafford is not new for my beloved Brentford, who have also lead in their last 2 away games this season, but what is also not new is what happened after the break.

Last October it took a stoppage time brace from Scott McTominay to smoke out the Bees’ hopes of a victorious journey south, scoring his first in the 93rd minute, but this time surrendered the points in far more routine fashion.

Alejandro Garnacho found Sepp Van De Berg’s number at half-time and used it to run circles round him all second half, including leaving his marker marooned in midfield whilst Garnacho made use of the freedom of the Brentford box to tap home Marcus Rashford’s cross at the back post less than 120 seconds after the restart.

When Rasmus Hojlund administered the coup de grace 120 seconds after the hour mark the only people surprised in the stadium were those who had meant to spend the day at the other Old Trafford.

Having barely threatened before half-time the hosts tore the visitors apart in the second 45, whilst the hosts did what they do best on the road this season.

Brentford have taken the lead in 3 of our 4 away games this season and lost every single one. For those of us who have followed them nationwide since promotion to the top table there is a huge sense of de ja vu.

In the 2022/23 Premier League season we topped the table for most points dropped and it’s starting to feel like we are on the route to topping it again this season, we are already on 9 from our last 3 matches after all.

Sure they’ve been at Spurs and both Manchester teams, never easy places to go, but even so we have to turn this trend around soon to avoid topping that table as the De Ja Vu engulfs us again.

The expected return from injury of Rico Henry, Igor Thiago and Mathias Jensen is expected soon and whilst this will undoubtedly help, the sense of De Ja Vu that comes from further injuries being suffered is dreaded far more than any other source of the same sense.

Our first chance to expel the putrid stench of De Ja Vu from our season comes tomorrow against the newly promoted Tractor Boys.

They have yet to get their engine started since promotion, with just 4 draws and no wins from their 8 matches so far, lets make sure they board the coach back to East Anglia with their engines still silent and the stench of De Ja Vu stalking their steps… again.

Forget The Past

So apparently I’ve been living under a rock this week, I’d completely missed the huge England news till this morning!!!

Just incase you’ve somehow missed it too, THOMAS TUCHEL IS ENGLAND MANAGER!!!!

For the third time this century the FA have put their faith in a foreign coach to lead the national team.

Sven Goran Eriksson was undoubtedly an incredible trail-blazer in this respect, with the 5-1 destruction of Tuchel’s native Germany in Munich on September 1st 2001 a treasured childhood memory for me.

Eriksson left the job having managed a triplicate of Quarter final appearances at major tournaments, so when the wally with the brolly oversaw England’s first failure to qualify for a major tournament in 14 years the FA tried to repeat that success with Fabio Capello.

The Italian’s time in charge was far less successful, with the game of the ghost goal seeing England dumped out of the 2010 World Cup and faith in the national team at it’s lowest ebb in decades.

So for anyone keeping score that’s one great success with a foreign coach and one that was far less so, now the FA is looking to win the best out of 3 or maybe hoping that ‘third time lucky’ holds true.

Tuchel is taking over a team in it’s best state since Italia ’90, with his predecessor Gareth Southgate turning the team from the laughing stock they were under Roy Hodgson to world beaters.

This recent success has transformed many of us supporters through the journey of cynics, doubters to the destination of believers.

We went from losing in the round of 16 at Euro 2016 to 3 semi-finals in 4 tournaments under Southgate, to the point that losing the final this summer was seen as such a failure that large sections of the press were calling for his head.

Oh, how times have changed.

That is the weight of expectation that Tuchel will be dealing with from the moment he takes charge of his first game in the new year, but having managed top club teams in France, Germany and of course England the ex-Chelsea manager is used to that.

His positive approach to his new job is epitomised by his call to us all to FORGET THE PAST and LOOK FORWARD TO THE FUTURE

Wilkommen Thomas Tuchel. Viel Glück und dank im voraus

1st Round Rivalries

Twelve teams are replaying previous matches tonight knowing what awaits them if they win… An FA CUP 1st round game to kick off their November, at home for 10 of them.

The teams already looking forward to their 1st round matches most though will both be heading to the homes of their biggest rivals.

Kettering Town, currently lying 15th of 21 teams in the Southern League Premier Central Division, are taking a break from their 7th tier life and heading 20 miles down the road to League One big boys Northampton Town.

It’ll be a great day out for them to test themselves against their local ‘rivals’ with very few fans truly and honestly seeing the result as the most important part of the match.

Another set of fans travelling to a match another 20 miles south that same weekend will be in the opposite mindset ‘only the result matters. AFC Wimbledon fans feel free to correct me if I’m wrong…

AFC Wimbledon will be heading up to the franchise in the midlands not caring about the performance or how they get the result, they will just be desperate to complete a hat-trick of wins over the Franchise that stole their club 22 years ago.

The true Dons, continuing the legacy from 2003 onwards, scored their first home win against Milton Keynes on March 2nd this year thanks to a 94th minute winner by Ronan Curtis and followed it up with a convincing 3-0 victory last month.

Now they’ll be looking to complete the hat-trick in the fiercest rivalry in England to complete a triplicate of beautiful things.

Who doesn’t like to make it 3-in-a-row against a team you hate? but knocking them out of the oldest cup competition in the world whilst avenging your 3-1 loss, when you finished with 9 players on the pitch, on your last visit to their vacuous, soleless cauldron of evil back at the start of the year, does life get any better than that?

There will be few people in south-west London who will think it can if things go their way in just over 2 weeks time.

Having taken 22 years to get your first home win over the team that stole your club and claimed to have it’s soul wouldn’t it be glorious to beat them 3 times in a year.

Hoping to be in the stands myself to witness how it all works out.

Unleash The Swarm!

My passion for 430-mile round trip to home games had been coming under strain through the back end of last season and the early games this season too.

When I was more likely to see injuries than victories what keeps me coming back? HOPE

Hope that one day soon things will turn around for us and the next game is the one I will be celebrating a scintillating performance and the ecstasy of victory. Today hope came true.

One of the Wolves fans on the train back to Waterloo at full-time said to me “you should have got a cricket score” and he was absolutely right.

Sure it took a pitiful 77 seconds for Nathan Collins to open our account today and our lead only lasted till Matheus Cunha’s 4th minute equaliser, but we should have been 2-0 up before that and it was only the sterling work of Sam Johnstone between the Wolves sticks that kept us out of double figures by the final whistle.

We were on song from the first minute to the last and completely wiped the floor with a wolves team that were so woeful that they were booed off at half and full-time.

Playing at 100,000mph we overwhelmed the visitors in midfield and every time we swarmed into the final third we should have scored.

The lack of structure in either team’s defence was shocking, but with total command of the midfield Brentford were the only team that ever looked likely to take advantage of the opponents shaky backline.

Wolves only scored in the aftermath of conceding when the home team were still riding the wave of celebration circling the stadium, Jorgen Strand Larsen getting the visitors’ last equaliser 6 minutes after Bryan Mbuemo had doubled the host’s lead from the spot.

The visitor’s would only be level for 2 minutes though before Christian Noorgaard restored the host’s lead just before the half hour mark. Ethan Pinnock would add another for the host’s in the dying moments of first-half stoppage time, Brentford’s 4th of a blockbusting 6 goal half.

The first 45 kept up such a frenetic pace that it was only reasonable to expect the 2nd half to dawdle along somewhat and in comparison it certainly seemed too.

The visitors threw substitute after substitute onto the field in a vain attempt to gain a foothold in proceedings.

None of them helped and the first of them, replacing Andre with Hee-Chang Hwang, drew a chorus of deafening boos from the away support interspersed with chants of “you don’t know what you’re doing” aimed at Head Coach Gary O’Neil.

The clear animosity between fans and team, coupled with the dreadful ‘performance’ on the pitch today and the results this season so far tell me Wolves will be dropping down to the championship in May unless something drastic changes fast.

Brentford were only prevented from scoring a hatful more goals by the lack of fresh legs off their paper-thin, injury-ravaged bench.

Fabio Carvalho and Yehor Yarmoliuk were only unleashed in the 77th minute but it was fitting when a combination between them in injury-time resulted in the former tapping home the host’s 5th and final goal of the match.

Everyone left in the stadium was too busy celebrating that goal to spot Wolves snaffling a consolation 3rd at the other end before the ref finally blew for the end of the match.

The celebrations that had been reverberating through the home ends since Carvalho bulged the net were now turned up 11 and would continue to ramp up and up as the victors took a lap of honour around the stadium.

Normally I have to sprint for a train at full-time but this time I’d worked slack into my schedule and stayed a full 15 minutes after the final whistle to allow the glory of hope fulfilled to permeate my soul.

With that feeling I can survive the international break till the Bees are back in action at Old Trafford in a fortnight. BRING IT ON