From edging a close home starter against Palace to wiping the floor with the hapless Saints and from making serene progress in the League Cup to scoring after just 23 seconds to lead at the Etihad things so far this season had been going really well for Brentford, almost too well….
So when Yoane Wissa was taken off at half time at the weekend I didn’t think too much of it, just a precaution right to ensure he’s good for the Spurs game right?
I should’ve learnt better than that by now.
As loyal fans of the Bees understand far too well, injuries for us are never simple short term affairs.
Last season we were without every single member of our first choice outfield at some point or other throughout the season, with both our best full-backs still out with injuries sustained in the opening salvos of that campaign.
So whilst it was not surprising to hear Thomas Frank announce that Wissa’s injury was bad and we will be without him for “a couple of months”, it was still a freight train punching me in the gut.
Just as it felt like Jersey road would be able to return to being a training ground it’s time to erect the hospital tent on the grass once more and bring in the triage nurses.
Taking that couple of month’s at it’s minimum that’s 7 games to get through an attacker light, including our trip to the cottage round the corner (which we will win handily).
As dejavu hits us hard in the anxiety belt for 24/25 the greatest thing about it is that this time we know we can overcome it.
Even with the slew of injuries we had last season we were never in any danger of dropping down a league and with the start we have made this time round coupled with our experience of getting it done against the odds we know that, no matter what the gods of football hit us with, we will overcome it once more.
Saturday’s trip to the banter boys of North London will be the first test of how our first team adapts to it’s Wissa shaped gap.
Fabio Carvalho presented a compelling case for being the man to fill that gap. His mercurial performance against Orient topped off with a spectacular overhead kick to open his account and an assist to help Mikkel Damsgaard open his.
No matter who takes Wissa’s place those are some big boots to fill, but I have faith they will be filled brilliantly till he is fit enough to reclaim them.
Despite this little setback, Brentford’s season will go up another gear from here.
If that isn’t enough then just cast your mind back to our last match before the international break as we swept Southampton off the park for 89 minutes, dominating a Premier League game like I’ve never seen us do before. The final score, 3-1, was so harsh on the buzzing, brilliant Bees especially as the consolation arrived in the 95th minute, when a clean sheet looked certain.
No Contest In The End
From the first minute till the last we hunted down the Saints in packs and dismembered them piece by piece.
Mads Roerslev and Mikkel Damsgaard have both come in for criticism from me over the past few seasons, but both were brilliant.
Roerslev roamed his wing, snuffing out any attacks the visitors attempted to spring down that side in their crib.
As for Damsgaard, he led from the front with a masterclass in pressing that brought the rest of the team with him. It was his hunting that wrestled the ball loose for our first and last goals.
That it took till the 43rd minute for us to open our account was mostly due to the last pass missing it’s mark far too often, plus a conversion from Yoane Wissa in the 23rd minute that has still yet to land back on earth.
We were lucky not to be behind by the time we finally took the lead though as Southampton’s first break of the match 3 minutes earlier would have ended in extasy for the travelling fans if not for the greatest goal-saving sliding tackle I have ever witnessed, from the one man brick wall that is Ethan Pinnock.
When the opener came it was the glorious pressing of Damsgaard that made it happen.
Nicking the ball off Taylor Harwood-Bellis on the edge of the box he fed Kevin Shade to unleash a cannon ball of a shot that had the goal frame shaking like a leaf. The ball bounced out to the feet of Mbuemo who made no mistake with the rebound, sparking joyous scenes around the ground and choking the voice out of me for the next 10 mins from cheering so much.
The best chance of the half would go to Adam Armstrong, of the south coasters, in the final minute of the 45, who somehow contrived to launch the ball over the bar from 4 yards out when found unmarked in the centre of the goal mouth.
That miss, reminiscent of Yakubu’s for Nigeria at the 2010 World Cup, was enough to see him hooked off at halftime as Russell Martin looked to a double substitution to salvage hope for his floundering seasiders.
His embarrassment was covered somewhat when his teammate Ben Brereton-Diaz shanked a shot so badly wide that you could fit the length of Chile, north to south, widthways between the post and the ball.
Roerslev Ran The Right Wing All Game
Having dominated the first half the hosts went after their visitors with renewed vigour, nearly doubling their lead in the first minute as all Mathias Jensen’s ball needed as it scythed across the 6 yards box was a feather touch to divert it home. Alas, it got none.
Even a double half-time save couldn’t save the sinking Saints from their fate as the swarming Bees destroyed them.
Sure it took 20 minutes for Brentford to double their lead but when Mbuemo completed his brace by slotting home after more incredible pressing play from the irrepressible Damsgaard, there was no way back for the visitors.
Four minutes later the final nail was hammered into their coffin by Wissa, latching onto one of Mathias Jensen’s trademark long throws to tap it over the line from inches out.
Finally, we get to see how dangerous that throw can be and we also got to see what Thomas Frank has always seen in Damsgaard. Mikkel terrorised the opposition back line
Saints hadn’t looked like breaking their duck in front of goal this season, despite a trio of tap-in chances in this half alone. Then they scored the ultimate consolation goal…
Yukinari Sugawara smashed one home with the outside of his right boot from just inside the box as the one-man wall finally tumbled to the turf with exhaustion.
No denying the brilliance of the finish and the brilliance of the away fans ‘ We’ve scored a goal ‘ chant, but the goal would not have happened if the players had not already run themselves into the ground with the most committed performance I’ve seen from a team in a decade and a half of following football nationwide.
We will need to reach similar levels to get a result today, but we have had the international break to recover and shown ourselves the levels we are capable of.
We sit 6th before kick-off, our opponents have only managed one clean sheet this season (which was away on opening day) and their focus might be wandering forward to their next two games, giving us the chance to catch them with their pants down.
Loyalty of The Fans, Respect of The Players
The only bad news from the match for the rampant hosts was that Kristoffer Ajer had to be taken off due to injury 5 minutes before the goal. Having seen the team ravaged by injuries last season, let’s all cross our fingers to see him back on the grass soon.
For today though we have a new challenge to focus on, see you at the Etihad in a couple hours time.
COME ON BRENTFORD, THE RED AND WHITE ARMY STANDS BEHIND YOU
No this is not ‘fake news’ or an April Fool’s joke in very bad taste, it’s the real life and also the fulfilment of a fantasy. 20 years from their last and first victory, a 1-0 friendly win over Liechtenstein, the world’s oldest republic has done repeated the feat!!
This time though the historic moment was a step up on 2004’s glory as this time they won in an actual competition, the Nation’s League.
Again the victims sacrificed to history on the slopes of Mount Titano were Liechtenstein but they would not fall to the same player’s strike.
Nicko Sensoli, the Creatore di storia primario at the Stadio Olimpico di Serravalle, wasn’t born till 2005.
His goal was just the 33rd in national history and propelled them to the top of their Nation’s League group, not to mention sending tsunamis of ecstasy reverberating across the world.
With the world seemingly careening down a collective suicide pact to disaster every year of the past decade, at least, it’s a welcome tonic of gargantuan proportions to have a teenage trailblazer igniting a beacon of hope.
The hope that if even the world’s worst footballing nation can overcome 2 decades of unrelenting failure to create a story of such momentous success then maybe, just maybe we can all overcome the traumas in our own lives.
Thursday 5th September 2024 will be forever known as the night of the Miracle on Mount Titano and Sensoli the Saint is the man responsible for that miracle, the Creatori di storia.
Nicklo Sensoli will forever more be a cult hero around the world and the patron saint of football forevermore in the world’s oldest republic, SAN MARINO
We all knew the end was coming, the air was thick with the stench of an ending, but of all places Al-Ahli and the Saudi Pro League… How many of us truly saw Ivan Toney heading into wealthy exile when he left the Gtech? Yeah, me neither.
With long-term suitors Arsenal deciding that a loan deal for Raheem Sterling is preferable over signing a dead-shot from 12-yards and averaged a goal every 2 games for the Bees, the options left for Toney elsewhere dried up. Arsenal will regret their foolish choice
A prolific goal scorer, a mastermind from 12-yards and a leader in the dressing room who drives standards up amongst his team-mates or a man who has complained about every team he has ever played for when he is no longer the star man, who can only score goals when his life depends on it and is so consistent at making the wrong choice in the final third that I have named a syndrome after him…. why would anyone go for the latter??
All that really matters I suppose is that Arsenal have made their choice and Toney then had to make his. Choosing the wasteland at the peak of his career is such a waste of a mercurial talent who we all know should have been on the plane to the FIFA World Cup 2022.
Lunchtime of November 12th 2022 at the Etihad where his superb stoppage-time winner sent ecstasy on steroids surging through the away end will remain one of my favourite memories of this beautiful game of ours for decades to come.
His brace that day was the icing on a virtuoso performance, when even for the millionaires of Manchester couldn’t handle the magician of the bus stop.
From humble beginnings at hometown club Northampton Town and after enduring a loan-ridden stay in the North East his career finally took off at Peterborough, where averaging a goal every other game got him the move to West London where he would make his name, break into the England squad and ride the wave of genius to Euro 2024.
Now he slides off to Saudi having been dropped from the England squad by interim manager Lee Carsley and with little prospect of forcing a recall, whilst playing in the desert.
Thank you for the memories Ivan, you will always be a legend in West London.
Goodbye and thanks for all the memories
Sterling Syndrome: when you’re in the box and don’t know what to do with the ball think through all the options for long enough to be dispossessed then whinge to the media about how it’s everyone else in the teams fault that you don’t score more often.
Mamma Mia, here we go again. Another season of ups and down, ecstasy and heartbreak gets underway.
Despite all the doubters along the way, including myself last season (sorry), Brentford begun their 4th successive season in the top flight today and our visitors for this one were another set of Londoners.
Having opened our Premier League account with a gorgeous 2-0 victory over Arsenal and last season with a 2-2 draw against their North London rivals, with a 2-2 draw at the King Power in-between, this season it was the turn of the Kings of South London to be hit for a Brentford brace.
Crystal Palace fans who made the long trip to the other side of the capital will have felt frustrated on their pointless journey back as not only were Oliver Glasner’s Eagles better than the Bees for much of the match. They had the ball in the next 3 times too, just a shame only one counted.
Always nice to see my beloved Bees start the season by securing 3 points and launching ourselves to 6th place, the edge of Europe…
4th Season View, From My Church Pew
Palace, in their away kit reminiscent of the bright yellow highlighters from high school, got the season underway at the Gtech and 40 seconds later Kevin Shade was slashing a shot across the face of goal for the hosts.
Bees failed to capitalise on this fast start as they dropped deeper and deeper for the next 20 minutes inviting pressure and looking to catch the Eagles napping on the break.
The problem with that approach was that it allowed them space in midfield to play and they were making excellent use of the space to mount charge after charge at our back line.
Eberechi Eze was particularly adept at this and if his final ball had been better on several occasions the visitors could have had an early lead. His most mercurial runs were into the left wing void that opened up when Mads Roerslev had to tuck in to cover.
Our defensive frailties had let us down in the early games last season and, after conceding 4 against Wolfsburg in pre-season it looked like they might rear their ugly heads once more.
In a backs to the wall effort we kept our sheet clean, even managing to catch them on one swift break with Yoane Wissa, till he tried to beat 5 players single handed with Mathias Jensen in acres of space to his left.
In the wake of that attack Wissa picked up the first yellow 20 minutes in to the host’s season thanks to a shoulder barge 20 yards out. Nothing came of the resultant free-kick, but they had the ball in the net from one just 6 minutes later.
Adam Wharton, of England’s Euro 2024 subs bench, crumpled to the floor off minimal contact and as he shaped up to take the free-kick it appeared to all the world, Mark Flekken included, that the ball would be floated into the box to be met by a driven header… Palace had other ideas.
Eze sauntered over to the ball and hit it first time round the one man wall and past Flekken statuesque between the stick. Some early season sluggishness from the hosts punished by the visitors only for the ref to give us the lifeline of a free-kick for a foul amongst the scrum of players waiting for the cross.
That huge let-off was pounced upon by the relieved hosts in the best possible manner, they were 1-0 up less than a minute later.
Which ones will you make? November 2nd and May 18th for sure!
Bryan Mbuemo finished off a flowing solo move, twisting this way and that to throw his marker to the floor creating just a yard of space for him to turn and flash the ball into the bottom left corner.
Against the run of play Brentford led and they almost had a 2-minute brace as Nathan Collins slid a shot through a forest of legs from the left channel only to see it blocked on the line.
Despite near-monopolising possession for the rest of the half, it was the hosts who came within a cat’s whisker of doubling their lead just before half-time.
Shade, brought in last summer but injured for most of the season, announced his return to the team with a sumptuous effort just before half-time, curling the ball beautifully round his marker, out of Dean Henderson’s reach and an inch wide of the post.
That was the last meaningful action of the half, with the last 5 minutes ambling along, and the hosts sprinted down the tunnel 1-0 up in a game their opponents had bossed.
Palace Attack Gets Airborne
Glasner shuffled his pack at half-time, replacing Jean-Philippe Mateta with Odsonne Edouard, the man who would draw them level.
It would take Edouard 10 minutes to open his account thanks to an abysmal mix-up in the Bees back-line. Tyrick Mitchell was given far too much time to float a cross to the back post and when it was nodded down into the 6-yard box Edouard reacted quickest to poke it home, despite the attention of 2 defenders. Hopefully that’s one of the softest goals we concede this season.
Edouard thought he had doubled his account minutes later when Eze fed it through to him in the centre for him to stroke home, only for it to be correctly chalked out for offside.
That was the last of the visitors hat-trick of finishes, but Brentford had one more in them.
First though a change of personnel, with Shade withdrawn to deafening applause to be replaced by Keane Lewis-Potter and Mikkel Damsgaard replacing Vitaly Janelt in midfield.
These changes seemed to upset the Eagles as within 2 minutes it was the Bees soaring to victory. Wissa slid in on the line to snaffle the ball home after Henderson’s dive could only shovel the ball into path. It was a gift the Congolese was never likely to pass up and the home stands were sent into the stratosphere.
Whistle Blown, Season 4 has finished loading
Defensive substitutions from Thomas Frank helped us withstand the final onslaught of the wounded beasts from south of the Thames.
As the final whistle blew, after 4 nail-biting minutes of added time, a wave of relief flowed round the home stands. The performance may not have been brilliant but what matters early in the season is the result.
Brentford struggled to impose their will on the midfield throughout the game, but when they broke their trademark speed and tenacity shone through, with a little potency sprinkled on top for good measure.
Taking our chances was an issue for much of last season so it’s brilliant to see that, even without Ivan Toney in the squad, that problem seems to have been fixed.
On my way home now I see nothing but good signs for the seasons, after all they do say the best teams find a way to the win when they’re not playing their best football. Today that was us and long may we continue to find that way to win.
The Victors Celebrate
Here’s to securing a 5th season in the Premier League and to whatever else this season holds for the Bees of BRENTFORD!!
As I scythe south to start Brentford’s 4th season in the Premier League I’ve been tempted to write a blog, but running short of time I’m taking us back to my last game of last season.
At Leyton Orient’s gorgeous Brisbane Road ground for the penultimate game of Emma Hayes’ reign at Chelsea before her move Stateside, I had the best seat in the house.
Right by the halfway line in the disabled seats, the only tickets available when I booked, there was no-one between me and the pitch. With the stewards permission I took advantage of the panoramic pitch views to take a few (400) photos of the action and now I’m sharing some of the best with you.
Views Don’t Get Better Than ThisSpurs Warming Up To Ruin The PartyThe Calm Before The StormThe Hosts Plan TogetherHere Comes The OnslaughtAll The SpaceNilden Gives Her Marker The SlipIn Full FlowSetting Up The AttackThe Last Line Of DefenceRef In The Centre of EverythingDigging Out A ShotOne On One With The EnemyLino’s work really hard sometimesGiving The Opposition The SlipNever A Nice SightIn It GoesAll Hugs At Fulltime
That’s a few of the better photos from the match completely un-edited and chosen at the end of a long train journey.
Another season dawns and once again this blog returns, but this season I was less prepared than ever before. Due to other distractions in life I wasn’t aware of the season starting till the day of the first games.
Scrambling to find a game I could make at such short notice one team called out to me, Stockport County.
The Hatters have been on the rise for many seasons now and after becoming League Two champions in May they start this season up in the heights of League One.
Edgeley Park’s League One view
They came millimetres away from a perfect start to their time in the 3rd tier within 20 seconds of kick-off.
Today’s opponents Cambridge United finished 18th in the League last season, so the Blue Army proved the gap between the leagues is not all that large by carving through the Abbeymen’s defence like a hot knife through melted butter. It was just a shame that the shot was deflected agonisingly wide of the post.
Whilst it would have been a brilliant way for the newbies to announce their return to this league so quickly, they would have to wait a full 4 minutes more to take the lead.
Louie Barry, the home fan’s sweetheart, was the man who provided the moment to send the home fans into ecstasy with a stunning 20-yard chip over the head of the statuesque Vicente Reyes and in off the bar.
Kyle Wootton would try to produce a carbon-copy of his teammates brilliance just 10 minutes later, though with more stratospheric results.
Cambridge never recovered from this early onslaught and as they shrunk entirely out of the attacking third. Corey Addai could have had a nap between the posts and no-one would have been any the wiser.
The half belonged so completely to the rampant hosts that at half-time Garry Monk, once of Swansea City, decided it was high time to mix things up a little, replacing Jubril Okedina with Paul Digby at the heart of his defence.
Are You Not Entertained? asks Louie Barry after his opener
For the first 5 minutes of the second half Monk’s change seemed to be having the desired effect, his team launching out of the traps like greyhounds and harrying the Hatters back into their penalty box.
This first taste of defence spooked the hosts so much they sparked the floodlights into life, despite the glorious sunshine bathing the Edgeley Park pitch.
It did the trick though as the visitors shrunk backwards again and surrendered momentum back into the Hatter’s hands as the game meandered it’s way into its final 20 minutes.
The meat of the second half was a midfield slug-fest being won by Stockport, but as the game hit it’s 73rd minute without any more goal-mouth action of note both manager’s chose to dip into their benches to spice up proceedings.
Monk’s 3 substitutions made little impact on the match, but one of Dave Challinor’s changes was much more successful.
Jayden Fevrier marked his introduction to the game by weaving down the right before feeding the ball to the feet of Wootton, allowing provider of Stockport’s first to turn scorer of their second from point blank range at the back post.
Stockport’s number 19 celebrated his goal by scaling the hoardings behind the goal.
This was the last meaningful action of a match in which both teams had tried to work their way into the season and it is the hosts that will feel far more positive for the season after the way this one went.
Stockport will face tougher challenges this season and they have since been brought back down to earth after a midweek League Cup loss to Championship Blackburn Rovers, but they will still be riding high on their chances of survival in League One after such a soft introduction to League One.
After a hectic long weekend that included watching the Euro 2024 Final from A&E in Oldham, today has been the first day I’ve had the time to sit down and write since the Semi-Final.
I had been writing a breakdown of the final set to end on a hopeful note for the World Cup in 2026, after all we still had a brilliant team and a man at the helm who had never failed to get us to the business end of every major tournament.
Then I had an hour between trains at London Waterloo and that’s where I heard the news…
GARETH SOUTHGATE HAS RESIGNED AS ENGLAND MANAGER
More than 2 and a half hours later and I’m still digesting the new reality for our nation.
I know there will be many fans glad to see the back of Southgate after some of the performances from the team at this Euros, but for all the bad moments we still made the final and came one moment away from glory and no other manager since Sir Alf Ramsay has given us that.
In his first tournament as England Manager and coming in off the back of Sam Allardyce’s disastrous 67days at the helm, not to mention the ignominious humiliation at the hands of minnows Iceland at Euro 2016, Southgate got us all the way to the semi-finals.
He managed to turn things around so comprehensively the he even managed to crack, first-time, a puzzle that no previous England Manager ever came close to solving… how to win a penalty shoot-out!!
The nerves that night were turned up to 11 but having felt the crushing despondency of shoot-out failure at Euro 1996, he had his men well drilled in the art and in their first World Cup knockout match in 12 years Southgate’s team banished a national taboo to the annals of history!!!
Having thrown the monkey from the backs of a nation in 2018, and our first semi-final since Italia ’90, Gareth took us that one step further at Euro 2020/2021 by guiding the nation to our first major tournament final since 1966!!!!
Okay, so this time around Wembley wasn’t lit up with ecstatic Englishmen when penalties came back to haunt us once again, but such was the culture change bought on by the waistcoated maestro in 2018 that the discourse around this failure was more along the lines of frustration that such a great team had messed up, rather than resignation to the fact that fucking up on penalties was just a national tradition.
Southgate is the man who has changed that.
That the 2022 World Cup in Qatar will be seen as the lowest point of Southgate’s tenure, whilst being the high point for some of his predecessors whilst other never reached that high, is one of the greatest signals for the progression of our national game with the man from Watford steering the ship.
Even in the baking conditions of the desert Southgate was able to raise the national level once more and if we had managed to overcome an incredible French team, that took eventual winners Argentina all the way to penalties, we would doubtless have made back to back finals at major tournaments for the first time ever.
Back to back finals at the Euros would have to do instead as Mr. Southgate took one last shot at the title in Germany and made yet more English history in the process.
Not only was the game in Berlin last weekend our first ever final on foreign soil, having banished the taboo 6 years ago Mr. Southgate’s men took things one step further in our Quarter Final against the Swiss by proving the impossible is indeed possible.
They delivered the perfect 5 out of 5 penalty shoot-out victory, an achievement of such majestic beauty that we may never see it’s like again!!!!!
To my mind this was his crowning glory, to turn our national team from a laughing stock that had been unceremoniously dumped out of Euro 2016 by a country with a population lower than that of Liverpool into a team feared across the world and favourites to go deep at every opportunity.
Sure Sunday didn’t turn out quite as planned, but it’s down to Mr. Southgate that we even came close.
Now the nation must carve a path into the future without this football genius to guide us and on whoever’s shoulders that unenviable task falls I wish them the best of luck, they have one hell of an act to follow.
As for Mr. Gareth Southgate, the man who made all dreams seem possible, I can say only this….
As the old saying goes “It’s not where you start that matters, it’s where you end up” and every England fan will be thanking our lucky stars that that hold true in football too given how this semi-final started.
England didn’t just start their tournament slowly, they did the same in this game as Declan Rice got his pocket picked deep in his own half by Xavi Simons and as no-one in white put in the effort to close him down he took the chance to unleash a piledriver whistling past Jordan Pickford’s fingertips.
One-Nil to the Netherlands with just 7 minutes on the clock and there must have been some in the stands and pubs across the lands who feared that was the start of a dreadful evening.
Luckily VAR was on hand to gift us a way back into the match 11 minutes later, awarding us a penalty softer than a Merino wool blanket.
Harry Kane was picked out on the penalty spot by Bukayo Saka before flashing his volley agonisingly over the bar, only to be feathered by the block of Denzel Dumfries after the ball had already flown behind.
The contact was minimal at best but still enough for VAR to recommend to the ref that he had another look and as refs do these days he followed the tech’s orders, obediently pointing to the spot.
Kane made no mistake in devouring this gift to smash home into the bottom left corner and draw England level.
It almost got better for England within 5 minutes of their equaliser when the fleet-footed Phil Foden managed to smuggle the ball out of his feet and fire goalward from point blank range onto to see it blocked on the line.
In a first half that was easily England’s best of the Euros, admittedly a low bar, in by far the most entertaining match of their tournament too.
They will be slightly disappointed not to lead at half-time having dominated the flow of the half and hit the woodwork a hatful of times too. Though they were thankful to their own woodwork on occasion throughout the half as the Dutch carried an excellent attacking threat of their own.
Despite the brilliant fare from both teams in the first 45 it seems neither manager was happy at half-time as they both took the opportunity to dip into their respective benches.
Gareth Southgate took the step many had been calling for since the group stages with left-footed, left-back Luke Shaw replaced right-footed Kieran Trippier at the break, whilst Ronald Koeman turned to super-sub Wout Weghorst to provide the Orange with a magic moment or two, with Donyell Marlen the man making way.
Attacking though these changes were the first 15 minutes of the second half were stiflingly sedate as both sides stuttered their way into the half.
Hitting the hour-mark seemed to be a hidden signal for the Dutch to spark back into life as they began to monopolise possession and ratchet up the pressure on Pickford, who proved himself equal to it.
Having weathered the storm it looked for a glorious second that England had completed the comeback 12 minutes from time as a flowing move down the left evaporated the Dutch defence and saw Saka poke home from 6 yards out. Only for this ‘winner’ to be swiftly chalked out for offside against Kyle Walker before he slipped in the assist.
Seemingly Southgate took this as a sign that it was substitution time as Ollie Watkins and Cole Palmer replaced Kane and Phil Foden respectively with time to write themselves into history.
Watkins obliged with a sublime strike worthy of winning any match at minute 90:02, having been fed the ball by Palmer….
Picking up the ball on the right side of the box he swivelled on the spot and stroked his shot across the face of goal and postage stamp perfect into the bottom corner, cueing euphoric celebrations in the stadium that will be echoed in every pub across the land.
How the players stayed focused through injury time only they know, cause we fans hit cloud 9,000 and will ride this high all the way to Sunday!!!
Many doubted Southgate’s methods as we stuttered our way to the Semi’s, but with Watkin’s wonderstrike winning this match his record at major tournaments now stands at 1 quarter-final, 1 semi-final and 2 Finals!!
In Berlin on Sunday, Spain will be the clear favourites but we have a team that has shown it can take on all challengers and come out on top. We have comeback from the dead to win in extra time, we have won on penalties and now we have won with a 91st minute winner from 2 substitutes who had only been on the pitch 10 minutes.
As our match winner said all we need now is to win “one more game, one more game” and we will be champions, after all it not where you start that matters, its where you end up.
How We Got There I Don’t Know, How We Got There I Don’t Care, All I Know Is ENGLAND’s On Our Way To Berlin On Sunday
For England where we end up is in our first final on foreign soil!!!
For so many years the words ‘England on Penalties Again’ would have filled the hearts of many an Englishman with soul-crushing dread.
England’s record on penalties in recent memory had been nothing short of shambolic, for those of a certain vintage the exit in Euro 1996 will spring to mind. Worst part about that night for most people was that it occurred at Wembley in front of more than 75,000 people against the old enemy Germany.
The person hurt most by that exit was none other than the current England Manager, Gareth Southgate, who missed the crucial penalty that evening.
Redemption is always possible though as Stuart Pearce, also known as Psycho, showed that evening by scoring to avenge his miss in the 1990 World Cup Semi-Final against the same opponents.
Southgate would have been searching for his own psycho redemption moment for decades before he took over as England Manager, only for it to present itself during his first major tournament in the job, at the 2018 World Cup.
Back in a capital city once more it was in Moscow that Mr. Waistcoat himself would find his redemption from the dugout. I’m sure we all remember where we were watching it from, I was crouching behind a sofa myself, when the Colombia game in the round of 16 went to a shootout.
One of my friends even said the immortal words “penalties again for England, where it always goes wrong”. Under normal circumstances that would have been prophetic, but these were normal circumstances no more.
This time England knew what they were doing and shrugged off the full weight of the universe, not to mention the pressure of our historical record, to finally win a shootout!!!!
It looked to be business as usual when Jordan Henderson saw his kick saved by David Ospina, “here we go again” my friend chimed in “piss off” said the rest of us but most accepted he was right.
Then Uribe saw his smash off the crossbar and when Jordan Pickford saved from Carlos Bacca history awaited us.
As we watched Eric Dier stepped up to the spot many of us thought Southgate was insane to trust such a pressure moment to a defensive midfielder, but the manager knew best and as that ball bulged the net history was made.
In the words of the commentator that night “History in itself” had been made and for hundreds of thousands across the nation “suddenly, all things seem possible”
Perhaps we have forgotten that feeling since, as we lay into the team for their admittedly lack-lustre performances at Euro 2024.
This England team is the most successful team we have had since 1966 and when we watched the shootout against the Swiss on Saturday there was no more hiding behind the sofa, just relaxing in it because this team have made the dread in the pit of the stomach when you hear the words ‘England on Penalties Again’ a thing of the past.
Sure no-one expected us to deliver a perfect shootout, with the opposition’s keeper never looking like getting close to stopping a single penalty, but the bottomless pit of dread is no more.
In fact I’d personally be happy for it to be ‘penalties again’ against The Netherlands in Dortmund on Wednesday evening.
We have made the semi-finals against all the odds and now we stand 2 games from history itself on Sunday all thanks to penalties again for England.
The Football tourist 