The Football tourist

The Nightmare Was Real

There are some blogs that never get written because of just how boring the game was, so reliving it to write about it makes the resultant blog mind-numbingly dull. Then there are those that don’t make it due to 60-70 hour work weeks leaving me too exhausted to write. This blog almost didn’t make it for a completely unique reason, reliving this game is unbearably painful.

On Saturday 16th March 2024 Brentford took the long journey north to Burnley in high spirits, blissfully unaware of the nightmare from the deepest pits of hell that awaited them in that quaint Lancashire town.

As I made my far shorter trip from Cottonopolis to the Clarets Den I was feeling similarly joyful in the sure and certain hope of a simple and glorious victory over a team that had managed a paltry 14points from their 28 games thus far this season.

Sure the Bees form outside London had been abysmal all season, but we had recently broken the hoodoo in the Miracle of Wolverhampton (https://the-football-tourist.com/2024/02/20/witnessing-a-miracle/) and anyway this lot were so poor that we would just turn up and blow them away like we did in a 3-0 walkover victory at the Gtech in October right? They had

I had conveniently forgotten the game at Bramall Lane when a 11th placed Brentford lost 1-0 to the bottom dwelling Blades in one of the bluntest attacking performances of the season (https://the-football-tourist.com/2023/12/22/brentfords-travel-sickness/).

The only notes of caution for the Bees were their brilliance at throwing leads (and points away) and the sheer number of players still on our treatment table. For this match that included 4 of our first choice defence, as Ben Mee joins the hospital at Jersey Road having sustained a knee injury at the London Stadium.

***My View Of The Unfolding Nightmare***

For the first 8 minutes it looked like my hopes of a simple victory would be realised, but then the nightmare began.

Vitinho broke into the box and was found one-on-one with the keeper before Sergio Regulion caught up with him as the Burnley striker lost his balance whilst shaping to take the shot.

From my vantage point behind the goal the contact appeared minimal at best and the rest of the home side’s appeals were half-hearted at best, the majority choosing to just play on, but then VAR got involved….

After a full 3 minutes of deliberation at the screen, during which time even the home fans began chanting “Fuck VAR” the ref pointed to the penalty spot and compounding this disgusting injustice by showing Regulion a red card. To say I was incandescent with rage would be to downplay the viscerality of my reaction.

Such incidents are commonly referred to as ‘soft’ but that nonsense makes the other soft calls look as hard as marble. That Jacob Bruun Larsen smashed it under the dive of Mark Flekken, who went the right way and got tantalisingly close to ensuring justice was done, to give the hosts the lead was the icing on top of the worst cake in history.

Despite this gift from the man in black it was telling of the difference in quality between the teams that it was the visiting 10 men carrying by far the greater attacking threat.

We could even have drawn level in the 22nd minute if their keeper, Arijanet Muric, hadn’t been on hand to hook the ball off the line to prevent an own goal from a dreadful attempt at a back pass.

Such was the lack of threat from Burnley that even when Flekken fluffed a clearance straight to the feet of David Datro Fofana 20 yards out, with Flekken stuck in no man’s land, it was the keeper who came out on top in the resulting duel for the ball. All Fofana had to do was knock it past him and stroke it home, but he couldn’t even manage that.

Having survived that scare in the dying minutes of the first half and having had the better of the first 15 minutes of the second half it was especially painful to see the hosts double their lead just after the hour mark.

Fofana making up for his earlier failures, including missing a tap into an open goal from 4 yards out when completely unmarked by finishing off a flowing Burnley break, after the Bees had come inches away from equalising. His finish across a stranded Flekken was the hardest of his chances so far.

Burnley doubling their buffer over the Bees was even harder to take as it came minutes after seeing another patient for the Jersey Road hospital trudge off the pitch, as Mads Roerslev booked his bed for the international break.

Thomas Frank used this opportunity to make a triple substitution in hopes of turning things around, it took till the last 10 minutes to work and only did so due to the introduction of Bryan Mbuemo to proceedings at this late moment.

Two headers in those last 10 minutes looked to have drawn the Bees level, as we salvaged hope from the nightmare, only for the ref to rule out Shandon Baptiste’s equaliser for a ‘foul’ on Muric as the ball floated in over his outstretched arms.

Both goals came from simple passing moves down the right and beautiful crosses from Shandon Baptiste. The first of these landed on the diving head of Kristoffer Ajer 8 yards out in the centre of the box and he guided it home into an empty net.

In the explosion of hope that followed this goal the ref still couldn’t help making himself the centre of attention by showing Ajer a yellow card for daring to celebrate giving his team the chance to get something out of a match where they had started a man down and played 2 down for the past 74 minutes.

Baptiste’s goal came from another cross deep on the right, but this one flew over the heads of everyone in the box before dipping under the bar and into the top left postage stamp.

It was a finish of unrivalled beauty to snatch a draw from the jaws of defeat for Brentford and the relief was palpable, for all of 3 seconds before the ref once again decided to snatch the game away from the visitors.

This time the hosts were given a free-kick because Toney was jumping at the back post with Muric and the momentum of him trying to get on the end of the cross saw him land on top of Muric, who wasn’t getting any near the ball anyway.

Daring to have the instincts of a striker was enough for Toney to be punished though and condemn Brentford to yet another loss outside London.

I was fuming as I walked back to Burnley Manchester Road train station after the game and checking the table on the way home to see us only 4 points above the dreaded dotted line did nothing to soothe my anger at this great injustice (though Forest’s punishment has since widened the gap to 5 points).

Even writing this days later I cannot escape the feeling that Brentford were robbed of a crucial win in a relegation 6 pointer against a team that will be going down anyway.

We now have the international break to recover from this result and steel ourselves for a run in that that starts with back-to-back home games, against Manchester United and Brighton and Hove Albion respectively.

I will be missing the first of those due to work commitments, but will be making every Brentford game after that, using the fire ignited by this day at Turf Moor to roar us over the line to safety.

Luton Town’s Mufasa Moment

I know in my last blog I said that this one would chart my visit to Valley Parade, which is now more than a week ago, but yesterday was my first day off since that match and (after sleeping through most of it) I decided to listen to Luton Town’s visit to Bournemouth before starting to write.

This proved to be an excellent decision as the match at The Vitality Stadium, a.k.a. Dean Court was exponentially more exciting than the dross I endured in Bradford. This is down to one simple fact; the teams on the South Coast both went out fighting for the win in a way neither team in West Yorkshire had.

The only similarity between the games were that each half belonged to one team, with the visitors taking the first before the hosts fought back in the second.

The fight back in Yorkshire was paltry though with just the single goal pulled back to parity by the end of a game that really was a quintessential bore draw.

What happened on the South coast yesterday could be called many things, but boring? never boring.

Luton fans had travelled south with hope in their hearts as this was a match dedicated to their captain Tom Lockyer, who suffered a cardiac arrest on the pitch during the original fixture, and by half time it looked like being the perfect tribute.

Taking the lead within the first 10 minutes was an auspicious start and doubling their lead 20 minutes later was even better so by the time Ross Barkley rounded off the visitor’s hat-trick on the brink of half-time the away fans must have thought the game was won.

Surely nothing could go wrong now they had such a comfortable lead and had been cutting through their hosts with consummate ease, like a boiling knife through melted butter, the only question left was how much better their goal difference would look as they lifted themselves out of the relegation zone, right?

WRONG, VERY WRONG INDEED!!!

No-one except those in the dressing rooms will ever know what was said at half-time, but Andoni Iraola’s words worked miracles whilst Rob Edward’s fell flat as both teams emerged from the tunnel as entirely new proposition in the second half.

From being soundly booed off the field at half-time Bournemouth came out like a herd of stampeding wildebeest that Luton utterly failed to deal with. Instead the visitors were crushed under the weight of the onslaught, like Mufasa in The Lion King.

It took just 5 minutes for the rampaging visitors to pull one back, thanks to Dominic Solanke’s silky skill in the box to spin his marker and slide it home. This pushed the stampede into overdrive and 2 goals in as many minutes just after the hour mark saw the hosts restore parity on the night.

With 26 minutes of onslaught left to withstand it was now upto Luton’s players to show their steely determination to get over the line and for 18 minutes it looked like they might just manage it.

Once those 18 minutes had elapsed though they were looking for the referee to pull them over the top of the gorge to safety with his final whistle, but instead he was the scar of the story and kept them on the field to suffer their fate.

Fate’s crushing blow came moments later as Antoine Semenyo completed the brace he started 19 minutes earlier to hand the hosts a lead they would never relinquish, breaking every Luton Town fans heart in the process.

Depending on your allegiance this was either a comeback for the ages or the ultimate humiliation that saw all your hopes and dreams crushed into the depths of hell forever.

As a Brentford fan the dominant emotions for me were shock and overwhelming relief.

At halftime it looked like Luton’s win would leave us just 2 points above the dreaded dotted line and our visit to Burnley on Saturday would be a must-win match for a team that has won once outside London since March 2023 and have already lost to bottom-dwellers Sheffield United away from home this season.

The miraculous second half has kept our buffer at a far more comfortable 5 points and means that when I take my seat at Turf Moor it will be for the much less stressful must-not-lose relegation 6 pointer.

Meanwhile back at Kenilworth Road they have no time to linger on this humiliation as they have a proper relegation 6-pointer they must win in front of their home fans on Saturday, against Nottingham Forest.

A loss in their next match would be utterly devastating for Luton as Forest are the next team above them in the table and the team most likely to replace them going down to the shadowlands next season.

Burnley are absolutely destined for that elephant graveyard by the middle of May, but hopefully Brentford will have taken a huge step away from them once I am on the way home on Saturday.

East London’s Finest

On Tuesday 27th March 2024 I stepped back in time 5 years to The Braemer Road Stand of Griffin Park, just 15.1 miles away from the original.

Despite having seen Brentford handily humiliated in this area the day before (https://the-football-tourist.com/2024/02/27/smashed-to-pieces/) I went back to the east end for a second evening in a row, but this time I took the precaution of dropping down 2 leagues to take in a promotion 6-pointer in League One.

The setting for this mighty battle was Brisbane Road, now known as the Gaughan Group stadium for sponsorship reasons but which I will continue to call by its original name, a ground that has been on my football bucket list for years.

Stepping inside the ground was like stepping back into a memory, a beautiful memory laced with gold that left me floating on air. As the teams were announced and I watched the teams begin their walk down the tunnel I was praying for a home win to keep me floating.

To any Brentford fans missing the Old Ground I cannot recommend a trip to Brisbane Road highly enough, from the exterior to the food, from the view to the loos it will take you back to your favourite games at Griffin Park and the joy of celebrating that victory in the pub of your choice. (mine was The New Inn)

**The Teams and Fans Pay Tribute To The Late Great Stan Bowles**

The game that drew me to this glorious ground was a must win for Leyton Orient as they played host to Blackpool with both teams sitting on the brink of the playoff places.

Orient were 2 points behind their visitors as the Seasiders got us underway, knowing that any win would see them leapfrog their opponents and close the gap to the promised land.

The first half was equal parts combative and skillful, with the visitors making much of the early running. On the front foot they went after their hosts with both CJ Hamilton and Callum Connolly taking it on themselves to drive the hosts back.

Early on the hosts seemed especially petrified of Hamilton and doubled up on him whenever he had possession. Perhaps this fear was warranted as it was through his excellent work that the first true chance was crafted, sliding a tantalising cross through the host’s 6 yard area that Jake Beesley was mere inches from tapping home.

His sliding effort was followed up less than a minute later with a powerful drive from 16 yards out by Jordan Gabriel that cleared the bar by a good few feet.

The Tangerines were the only team causing their opposition problems early on though and if they had taken their early chances the outcome of the match could have been so different, but they didn’t and The O’s began to grow into the game.

It took them 23 minutes for the hosts to create a clear opening to test Daniel Grimshaw between the Blackpool sticks and when they did it was a test that was far too easy to pass with Omar Beckles trying to cut the ball inside to Ruel Sotiriou and sliding it behind him instead, straight into the stride of the recovering defender.

This was enough to fire up Tom James at left back though as he picked up the ball in midfield and drove toward the visitors box before laying it off to a teammate to mess up the shot. Finally seeing their team take the game by the scruff of the neck was a huge morale boost for the home support, who made their presence known for the first time in the 25 minutes from kick-off.

James’ solo effort from 25yards a minute later was hooked so far wide that he may have regretted not leaving the shooting duties to a teammate once more, but he was single-handedly forcing his team into the reckoning.

***Should’ve Rented A Flat At Any Corner***

Neither team was able to get the breakthrough before half-time and neither manager was happy enough with what they’d seen from their side to leave things be during the break either.

Both managers dipped into their bench, but it’s fair to say that Richie Wellen’s idea to switch George Moncur with Rob Hunt worked out far better for the hosts than Neil Critchley deciding to bring on Andy Lyons for Jordan Gabriel did for the visitors.

Less than 15 minutes into the second half Lyons would be heading back down the tunnel on a stretcher, having gone down with no-one near him clutching his leg. It is never nice to see anyone leave the pitch this way and when a player goes down with no-one near him it is rarely good news.

In the days since the game Critchley has confirmed that Lyons sustained a knee injury that “doesn’t look good”,

The worst part about this setback for Blackpool was it capped off a period of Orient domination that also saw the hosts take the lead.

***Never Nice To See, I Wish Andy Lyons A Swift Recovery***

The Seasiders had come out the tunnel swinging and were in the hosts area within a minute of the O’s kick-off, but that was the highpoint of their half as minutes later they were hit with the sucker punch.

Sotiriou burst out down the right wing and fed the ball across the box to Ollie O’Neill in the left channel. He announced himself to the home support with a delicious finish smashed across the keeper and into the bottom right corner of the net.

It was a brilliant sweeping move from the East Londoners to spark joy in the home stands, but with that joy came a distinct wariness. Orient had only won once in the last 3 games they took the lead and the first of those they lost in the 88th minute, so the home fans were unwilling to celebrate the 3 points before the final whistle.

The players did their best to calm the fans nerves though by bossing the rest of the half, barely giving the Tangerines a kick. Sol Brynn could’ve taken a nice half hour nap after the hour mark, his team were so in control he had vanishingly little to do between the sticks.

It was only when the ref blew the final whistle and the win was secured that the home stands allowed themselves to explode in ecstasy.

After a shaky opening 20, where they were lucky not to drop behind their visitors, the hosts took the match by the scruff of the neck and never let it go. It was a pleasure to witness.

From the second I saw the stadium to the moment it slipped from view on my way back to the tube this team had my soul.

In West London I have my beloved Bees (forever my number 1), south of the Thames it’s AFC Wimbledon that command my loyalty (a pleasure to know they won the ‘Dons Derby’ at the weekend, but now I have found a third London love. Orient are my East London Love story.

Sure the ground is a little run down in places, but the experience from start to finish was just magical. I will be back again some day for another match supporting East London’s Finest.

Tonight though I’m back off east to Yorkshire and Bradford City’s Valley Parade, my third new ground in a week.

Smashed To Pieces

No beating around the bush on this one. Brentford were abysmal at the London Stadium last night as the Hammers carved through them with ease and were extremely unfortunate to only score 4.

The final scoreline of 4-2 was extremely flattering on the visitors as they had no answer to the fast flowing football of a West Ham United team desperate to turn their fortunes around, having lost the last 6 on the bounce in all competitions.

David Moyes had spoken before the game about a new contract being on the table for him to sign, but that he was waiting to do so until the end of the season. Perhaps he’s hoping to be able to renegotiate the terms to be far more personally lucrative and if they have many more performances like last nights he will get that wish.

From the moment they kicked things off the hosts stamped their authority on proceedings and by the time the Bees managed to string together a meaningful period of possession 10 minutes later they were already 2-0 behind.

The worst thing about that scoreline is that it could easily have been doubled if Mohammed Kudus and Tomas Soucek had their shooting boots on. Within 3 minutes of kick-off Kudus was fed the ball in acres of space on the edge of the box but he shanked his shot so badly that it flew out into touch for a Brentford throw-in on the far touchline.

A minute later Soucek followed this up by expertly chipping the ball over the bar from point blank range, after the ball had been slid beautifully through to him from the left wing, as he floated away from whoever was supposed to be marking him.

His finish would have made for a stunning drop goal at Twickenham, and given England’s loss in the Calcutta Cup the previous day they could probably do a lot worse than to give him a call-up, but it fell to his teammate Jarrod Bowen to show him what was needed here at the London Stadium less than 60 seconds later.

The Hammers midfielders flooded forward on the left once again, to fill the void where the right side of the Bee’s defence should have been, before providing the perfect cross to the feet of the onrushing Bowen for him to fire past a stranded Mark Flekken with just 5 minutes on the clock.

Less than 2 minutes later Bowen double his and the Hammer’s account for the evening with a second goal as similar to the first as Dolly the Sheep was to Finn (who was the original sheep that Dolly was a cloned from).

As an away fan the most frustrating thing about Bowen’s quickfire brace was how little he had to do get it. The right side of our defence had disintegrated as the hosts tore down that wing at will to the point where, having arrived moments before kick-off, I hadn’t yet realised that it was Zanka and Keane Lewis-Potter on that side rather than our normal first choice pairing of Ethan Pinnock and Mads Roerslev.

Given that Pinnock is one of the last remaining members of the treatment room at Jersey Road this should have dawned on me earlier, but it had not done so for as far as I was concerned that side of the defence had been a mere mirage thus far.

When Brentford pulled one back entirely against the run of play just 4 minutes after the completion of Bowen’s Brace I was beginning to wonder if both defences were mirages.

Neil Maupay pulled one back for the bruised Bees by rifling a pile driver past a statuesque Alphonse Areola after Zanka and Lewis-Potter proved their existence was real with some intricate interplay on the right to break up field from yet another Hammer’s attack.

Having halved the deficit out of nothing, we should have had the chance to equalise from the spot moments later as Kudus shoved Sergio Reguilon over in the box for an absolute stonewall penalty that could be seen from the other end of the stadium.

The only people who apparently didn’t see it were the referee and the VAR lot back at Stockley Park…

These two little nuggets of hope seemed to finally rouse the Bees from their early slumber as we actually defended reasonably well for the rest of the half and despite their complete dominance of possession we managed to restrict their lead to just 2-1 at the break.

As teams headed down the tunnel and I trudged down the stairs to grab a much needed drink I turned to the man next to me and uttered the famous last words “it can only get better” because I know we are a far better team than we had shown so far.

***Gaps In The Home End and Still 10 To Play***

The first 15 minutes of the second half were a huge improvement from the Bees as they managed more than a sprinkling of attacks into the Hammer’s half, then Bowen put this burgeoning comeback back in it’s box by completing his first ever senior hat-trick.

His final goal of his maiden hat-trick came from yet another flowing move down the hosts right that ended with a teasing cross through the corridor of uncertainty for him to nod home from an almost identical position to his first two finishes. Even from my long range viewpoint the unleashing of relief was clear to see in his celebration.

As with his quickfire brace in the first half his goal this half was followed up minutes later with the host’s 4th of the night.

This time Bowen delegated the scoring to Emerson Palmieri who stepped up to the task beautifully with a cultured finish from 30 yards out that flew straight as a javelin into the top left corner of the goal. It was a finish of such beauty that even seeing my team go 4-1 I could not resist a little applause for the brilliance of the shot.

This second quickfire Hammer’s brace, combined with a long overdue triple substitution, fired the visitors back to life again.

We often come alive in the final 15 minutes of a match and we did so again here but, even with the host’s legs falling out from underneath them, this time round we had left ourselves far too big of a mountain to climb.

With 8 minutes remaining and the home fans starting to filter out towards the tube stations two of the visitors substitutes combined to provide the Bee’s with a consolation goal. Mikkel Damsgaard picking the ball up in midfield before feeding Yoane Wissa down the left who advanced to the edge of the box before smashing a low drive under Areola and into the bottom left corner.

The final 8 minutes of normal time and the 7 of injury time were all Brentford as they tried desperately to score the brace they needed to walk away from what had until this point been an unmitigated disaster of a performance.

It was a wonderful dream as the visitors played their best football of the evening but, like climbing Mount Everest in nothing more than a shell-suit, it proved to be an impossible task.

Frank Onyeka and Ivan Toney both came close though with Areola having to pull off incredible claw-out saves from both in the dying minutes to keep the host’s lead intact.

So a game that could easily have ended 7-5 to the hosts if both teams had scored their sitters, as well as the ones they did put away, instead ended just 4-2 to the Hammers as they deservedly returned to wining ways after a rough period.

As for the Bee’s… well there is at least some hope to take out of the final 15 minutes of the match, but the rest of it was rather sobering to witness and with Chelsea up next at home before a trip to the title-hunting Arsenal we could be heading to Burnley for a relegation 6 pointer in 19 days time.

That may be the next Bee’s game I’m able to make and all I can hope for is that we play better than we did last time we went to Turf Moor when I sat through what, to that date, was the worst 45 minutes, from the visitors, that I had ever seen in a football ground.

At least the only way from here is up.

Corporate Franchise Strikes Again

I really should have learnt better by now than to go to matches at the soulless warehouse belonging to the English franchise of the biggest corporate entity in global football.

I have been to countless matches there and only enjoyed one due to a virtuoso performance from their employee of the year, Erling Haaland.

Yep that’s right I was back at the Etihad on Tuesday to see if my beloved Bees could follow up the miracle of Wolverhampton by emerging from City’s lair with all 3 points for the second season running.

That was always going to be a tall order, as the Manchester franchise is by far and away the most successful of the corporation’s 13 international outposts, but with Kevin DeBruyne left on the bench and Haaland suffering a dry spell in front of goal it was still possible right?

***The Corporate Franchise Headquarters***

It seemed eminently possible as the match crawled through the first half with the visitors avoiding being bored to death by the corporation’s patented method of lateral 5 yard passes on the edge of the box.

I have never understand the draw of this drab brand of football and it seems that the locals didn’t either as even 30 minutes into the match there were still a plethora of empty seats in the home stands.

Perhaps part of that could be attributed to the truly atrocious weather that had seen the clouds unloading a torrent of water onto Manchester throughout the day, but then fans of most teams will follow their heroes to the ends of the earth no matter the weather…

Before the half hour mark it would’ve been acceptable to put this down to the breakdown of the local trams causing many people to have to walk from the central stations. That happened half an hour before kick-off though and the walk is 40 minutes tops.

The corporation is well aware of the limited appeal of it’s offering as they have the only stadium I’ve visited where there is Wi-Fi at you seat.

Despite the odd Brentford break to add excitement to proceedings it took less than 25minutes for the corporate franchise to bore me out of my skull and send me to check the scores from the lower leagues and the Champions League matches just to maintain my sanity.

From the growth of the empty seats around the stadium in the early exchanges of the second half it seems that many of the home supporters decided that 45 minutes of torture was quite enough, but they were about to miss the best part of the franchise’s night.

The worst part of City’s goal from an away fan’s perspective is that it came at the end of a 5 minute period where the Bees actually had the ball at their feet and were keeping it up the right end for once. Unfortunately nothing came of that possession and when City broke disaster struck.

The ball was punted forwards and looked to be landing at the feet of Kristoffer Ajer, until he slipped on the sodden ground and let the ball squirm past him. He was the last man and Haaland was rewarded for chasing a lost cause with the simplest chance to get back to scoring ways.

The Norwegian talisman put himself back on track for another colleague of the season award by slipping a simple finish past a marooned Mark Flekken, who had been brilliant on the few occasions he had been called on in the previous 70 minutes.

He was hardly called on in the remaining 19 minutes either as the corporates were happy to just sit on their lead and carry off the profit of the 3 points with their patented 5 yard pass to boredom style.

To be fair to them it worked and Brentford were far too willing to just sit back and let them get on with it.

The way to get after this franchise is to get physical with them, or at the very least close them down to within 10 yards when they have the ball and their visitors did that far too rarely across the 90 minutes.

I can only hope that they play far more on the front foot as I travel to see them take on West Ham United at the London Stadium on Monday, whilst next on the corporate franchise’s hit list is a Saturday afternoon trip to the seaside to take on AFC Bournemouth, on the other end of the football ownership scale.

For all the neutrals they will be hoping the fan’s club destroy the franchise beside the seaside as another City cakewalk to the title would spell doom for the Premier League from an entertainment and fan enjoyment perspective.

Liverpool may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but surely seeing them give Jurgen Klopp a heavy metal send off with a title, and a parade that all the fans can actually attend this time, would be a far better spectacle than seeing a couple of fans punch the air outside the Etihad after yet another City success.

Arsenal are also still in the title race and the outpouring of joy that would fill the streets of North London as Gunner’s fans see the trophy return to their part of the city for the first time since the Invincibles delivered glory 20 years ago would blow the joy of the Olympics across the Channel out of the water.

As a Londoner, Arsenal would be my first choice for the title but after what I had to endure on Tuesday I’ll take anyone but City.

**A Scoreless Draw Would Have Been More Appropriate**

Witnessing A Miracle

It was Saturday 10th February 2024 and in Wolverhampton a miracle was occurring… for the first time in 11 months Brentford won a match outside London!!!!

Our victims back on 10th March 2023 were a Southampton team destined for relegation but this sunny afternoon we beat a comfortably mid-table team that had already beaten us twice this season.

Not only had they come to our patch and thrashed us 4-1 earlier in the season, they had also knocked us out of the FA Cup just 3 and a half weeks before this match.

It’s fair to say my hopes for a positive result were as low as the Dutch would be below sea-level without their delta-works.

Little did I realise I was in for the shock of my life as I witnessed a miracle from the god’s perspective. Yes, the seats really were that high up.

From minute one we were positive in taking the game to the hosts and our first big chance fell to Ivan Toney in the 10th minute as he got ahead of his marker from a corner to nod the ball towards the bottom corner. Unfortunately, Jose Sa was equal to it and sunk into the grass to ponce on the ball.

This positive start was not without it’s dicey moments though as Mark Flekken was called into emergency action just 4 minutes later. Previously this would have spelt disaster for the Bees as Flekken has struggled to fill the shoes of the departed David Raya this season, but I had been told that his performances had improved drastically in recent matches.

Here he proved that was more than just talk as he dove to his left to pull off a point blank save to ensure the hosts didn’t take a lead they didn’t deserve.

Soon afterwards Nathan Collins was in top form to clear up the mess when Christian Norgaard left a pass back way too short and the Wolves looked to pounce.

With Flekken and his defenders holding things steady at the back the rest of the team were free to push the Wolves back deep into their den and Sergio Reguilon was next to go close for the Bees, but once again Sa was equal to the effort.

It took 20 minutes for the hosts to put together a decent spell of possession, but when they finally got it they were able to make it last a full 10 minutes due to the lack of an out-ball for their visitors. Toney was too busy helping out at the back to fulfil his role of terrorising the opposition back line.

Neil Maupay broke this siege with a solo effort where he scythed through the opposition from halfway to find his way into an incredible position, only to dribble his shot towards goal for Sa to scoop up with ease.

This wasted effort was not to matter for long though as with just 10 minutes of the first half to go Brentford took the lead, Christian Norgaard sweeping the ball home from close range after Reguilon smashed the ball through the corridor of uncertainty after bursting down the left wing.

One last brilliant point blank reflex save from Flekken was all it took for Brentford to lead at the break once again in the Premier League this season.

Despite the joy of my team surging down the tunnel with a 1-0 lead in their pockets to show for the best team performance I had seen from the Bees all season there was still part of me that expected the worst.

I even had the script written ‘Brentford throw away yet another lead this season’, but this time there was a plot twist, we held onto the lead and not only that….. we increased it!!!

Wolves came out of the traps fast in the second half with the fresh legs of their half-time substitute Nathan Fraser, who replaced Toti, helping to force them forwards. They even had the ball in the back of the net within 5 minutes of the restart, but Craig Dawson’s finish was chalked out for offside after a torturously long VAR check.

This let off gave the visitors all the motivation they needed to get back on the front foot and with Toney finally released into his natural role, plus the fresh legs of Yehor Yarmoliuk to torment the host’s midfield we were all over the hosts.

When the second goal came it was through our messiah. Toney heading home from 6 yards having ghosted into space to be in the perfect place to provide the finish to Vitaly Janelt’s teasing cross from the right.

At this point I had gone from a doubter to a believer as the visitors swarmed all over their hosts. We were unlucky not to add a third goal in the 13 minutes that remained.

For the first time travelling with the Bees this season there was no point that I felt that familiar foreboding dread in the pit of my stomach that we were gonna throw it away again, we were back to our best.

As the final whistle blew to confirm our 2-0 victory I was shocked into silence as everyone around me drowned in ecstasy.

Having followed my beloved Brentford all over the country all year with not a single success to show for my loyalty it took the whole of the tram ride back to Birmingham New Street before I accepted that I wasn’t dreaming and had witnessed was real.

The miracle happened and now we could head to the Etihad next with hope of another.

This match is just an hour’s walk from my flat and as I walk there tonight I will hope for a second miracle in just 10 days.

It’s Not All Doom And Gloom

Looking at Brentford’s results and performances from orbit, one win a piece every month since November, it certainly looks like we are in an unescapable downwards spiral.

Once you zoom in a little though the signs we may just be turning the corner are there.

The days of collapses where one goal for the opposition causes all our plans to go to pot are done. Wolves and Crystal Palace both took us to the cleaners last month, but when we have conceded in January we have kept ourselves in the match and invariably been able to keep things together enough to score another goal.

Our last 3 games have all ended 3-2 and in each one we have scored after our opponents have hit one past us. This huge improvement in the mental strength of the team is a huge positive for us and if Thomas Frank can keep this change going as crucial players return from injury and international duty then we will be set well for the rest of the season.

The greatest news for us Brentford fans is that this improvement in mental fortitude began before the return of the Prodigal Son, Ivan Toney.

Yes, we lost the last game before his return but even in that match at Molineux we managed to pull ourselves back into the lead after the hosts had pulled themselves level. Okay, so we did lose that one in extra time but we also managed to take it that far and only lost to a controversial, and extremely soft, penalty.

Then Toney returned for the Forest game and things really started looking up.

***The Genius Takes Centre Stage Again***

Leaving aside the idiotic defending to allow Danilo to open Forest’s account, the transformation when Toney took charge of proceedings with his incredible free-kick and the way he drives standards throughout the team was amazing.

With Ivan back and staying with us until at least the end of the season the standards throughout the team will continue to rise and rise, even Mads Roerslev played well against Forest, and results will follow.

Ethan Pinnock, Ben Mee and Kristoffer Ajer have all returned to shore up the defence. With 8 goals conceded in the last 3 games it is clear they have a long way to go but with each game they play together the wall will toughen up. Once their understanding comes back the days of conceding 3 goals a game we will start moving back up the table.

Even better news is that the City game tonight will be our last game without our AFCON and Asian Cup players. The return of Frank Onyeka, Yoane Wissa and Saman Ghoddos from their international duties, hopefully with some trophies in toe, will bring further steel to our attack.

Once they return we will be back to an almost fully fit squad, almost….

With this joyous accomplishment behind us we can push on with the job of turning 6 losses in our last 7 into a much better run and surging further clear of the relegation zone than our current 3 point ‘cushion’

Starting tonight we have 17 matches to turn this season around and as things start going our way again I have complete faith that we will manage to not only secure our top flight status for a 4th season running, but also push into the top half of the table.

We had a mid season spell like this in our first Premier League season and we managed to turn that around and we will do it again!!!

Good Luck Tonight Bees!!!!

The Cost Of Loyalty

Most people doing 60hour weeks with shifts all over the place would have used their first day off in 10 days to rest and recuperate.

Football fans are not most people and so it was that yesterday afternoon I found myself on a train to Wolverhampton to watch my team take on the Wolves at their den.

The sheer stupidity of this decision is hard to overstate. Not only could Brentford not defeat the evening’s opponents with a player advantage for 80 minutes of the original tie, but they had not won a game outside London since March last year and I had a 10 hour shift today starting at 6am.

Oh, and the last train back north was timed so that if the match went to extra time I would have to leave them playing to run for it. Such is my loyalty to my beloved Bees that despite all these factors I still made my way to Molineux.

As expected it was the hosts that were on top from the first minute as they pushed forward in waves, shoving the Bee’s deeper and deeper towards their own penalty area. Then one of those magical moments that every football fan knows well occurred….

After being battered for the first 11 minutes of the match and utterly against the run of play, to the extent I uttered the phrase ‘Where the F*** did that come from?’ in my Audio notes.

Brentford took the lead!!

Quite how we scored I will probably never know as shock overtook me for a good 30seconds after Nathan Collins smuggled it home.

Brentford were leading away from London, but even as ‘How S*** must you be, were winning away’ rung around the stand around me all I could think was ‘How long can we hold onto this?’.

The answer was 14 minutes, that’s how long we could hold out under the onslaught even with both Ben Mee and Kristoffer Ajer returning from injury to bolster the back line.

After numerous let-offs the hosts it was a simple break down the left that gave them the equaliser they thoroughly deserved. When the cross was curled across to the back post Nelson Semedo snaffled it home at the second time of asking, his first shot having rebounded back to him off the sprawling Thomas Strakovsha.

A brilliant display of last ditch-defending got us to half-time with the scores still level, but make no mistake the pack of Wolves had been leagues ahead of their visitors all half.

Only the scoresheet that did not reflect their dominance of proceedings.

Brentford had failed to offer much to the first half proceedings, apart from the goal and they came out for the second half determined to make up for that dour first half display.

It took them just 8 minutes of the half for the visitors to take the lead for the third time across the two ties and as in the first tie it was Neil Maupay who provided the finishing touch to a lovely team move down the left.

The ball was flashed into the centre and as Josh DaSilva failed to bring it under control Maupay pounced to poke it home and, after a torturous VAR wait, Brentford once again lead the match.

This time the lead would stick for longer, but not by much….

It took 23 minutes for the Old Gold to draw level once again and this time their equaliser came through the home-town hero Nathan Fraser, who is just 18years old and had been bought on just minutes before, who equalised with his first touch.

Fraser would have dreamt of a moment like this the night before the match, but watching him rifle home from point blank range was a soul crushing punch in the gut for those away fans who had made the doomed journey to support our heroes. Such is the cost of loyalty when you trust in it against every shred of common sense in your soul.

We were lucky to make it to the final whistle with the scores still even, but they would not stay so in extra time.

I was slipping into a deep sleep on the train back north when Wolves won it from the penalty spot in the 105th minute, but I have since seen the ‘incident’ that led to the penalty on highlights packages.

All I have to say about it is that I’m sure I’ve seen softer penalties, but I can’t remember when…’

Though perhaps it was Karma for how the first tie and the first half of this replay had gone as Wolves were definitely the better team over the 120 minutes I saw.

When you let the lead slip through your fingers three times you don’t really deserve to go though and I hope the home fans enjoy their Black Country Derby at the Hawthorns next Sunday.

The best summing up of Brentford in this Third Round tie came from Thomas Frank himself in the programme for this match.

“When you play 11 against 10 for 80 minutes, you’ve got to win, end of discussion”

As for where Brentford go from here it’s simple. We go back to London and regroup for Saturday as IVAN TONEY RETURNS FROM HIS BAN.

Nottingham Forest will be our opponents for that match and, despite last night’s display, I will be in the home fans cheering on my beloved Bees, mostly to witness the return of the prodigal son

Wombles Kneecapped

Ten days ago, my last day off, I headed south of the Thames to support the ultimate underdogs in their fight against a team from two divisions above them in the FA Cup 3rd round.

In the last 2 rounds AFC Wimbledon had managed a high-five of goals of goals, but before that lulls you into a false sense of Security about how easy this tie would be for them it’s worth noting that Cheltenham Town and Ramsgate were nowhere near the standards of their next opponents.

Ipswich Town have spent the season so far sitting comfortably in the Championship promotion places and looking destined to return to the top domestic table next season. The Wombles have faced many challenges since 2001, but in the Tractor Boys they faced their hardest opposition in years.

The True Dons took to this test brilliantly, giving as good as they got in the early midfield battle, but then they gave away a corner in the 7th minute and things started to go wrong.

A simple ball in was headed away in the centre where it fell to the feet of Nathan Broadhead unmarked on the edge of the D. His shot wasn’t great but as it ricocheted through the forest of legs it’s flight bamboozled Alex Bass in the Dons’ goal opening the scoring for the visitors.

Wimbledon refused to be beaten by this though as they created an opening 3 minutes later, it ultimately led to nothing of note for the hosts, but Ipswich knew they were in for a battle at least.

If that hadn’t tipped them off they certainly couldn’t miss the next indication, the hosts were level 10 minutes after going behind. Jake Reeves, the host’s captain, was the man who fired home the equaliser from the penalty spot, smashing it above the keeper’s dive.

The penalty was a gift for the hosts, as a defender dragged down a Don a the back post as the ball was swung in from a corner. Reeves took full advantage of this gift and with this confidence boost behind them the hosts pushed on in search of a second.

Aron Sasu had the opportunity a minute later when he was released on the right wing, but without any support his one-on-one with Christian Walton was quickly taken from him by some excellent last ditch defending by Freddie Ladapo.

The next five minutes of the match belonged to The Dons’ Harry Pell as he went from failing to finish off a flowing move down the left, to clipping the heels of Sam Morsy as the Tractor Boy’s captain tried to break. From being close to giving his team the lead to collecting a yellow card, it was a minute to forget for the Don’s number 8.

As the game barrelled towards half-time the host’s not only had opposition under control, but had so many chances to take the lead that I couldn’t list them all. The only problem for the Wombles was that they failed to take advantage of any of them.

Then things went wrong in the last 10 of the half.

Alex Pearce had to be withdrawn due to injury and replaced by Paul Kalambayi, who took a little time to warm-up to the speed of the game. Cameron Humphreys was able to give him the run around as he attacked at will down the right for the next 5 minutes and this period of play was capped off by a goal.

Unfortunately for the home fans it went to the visitors as Humphreys took advantage of his new found freedom to whip a ball into the box where Axel Tuanzebe to nod home from point blank range.

Despite suffering this sucker punch just before half-time Wimbledon were far from out of it as they emerged for the second half. To any non-football fan dragged along to the match it would not have been clear which was the higher ranked team.

The first 12 minutes of the half were so difficult for the visitors, with Harry Pell and Connor Lemonheigh-Evans both spurning glorious chances to bring the scores level again, that Kieran McKenna felt it necessary to shuffle his pack.

Bringing on new signing Jeremy Sarmiento for Freddie Ladapo may have worked for the visitors, but the ref decided we didn’t need to find out.

With the game on a knife’s edge Pell was running back to help cover an Ipswich attack and then the linesman’s flag was waved and seconds later he was sent off for a second yellow card.

Even with 10 days distance from the incident I cannot understand what the ref was thinking with this red card, not a single visitor was even appealing for the second ‘foul’, with this single action taking any tension out of the match.

I had never seen a player sent off for two yellow card offences and whilst it wasn’t as glaringly stupid a decision as Calvert-Lewin’s dismissal 2 days earlier it still felt like an insane call.

Going down to 10 effectively robbed the Dons of any chance to so much as force a replay they refused to collapse.

It took Ipswich a full 20 minutes to make use of their man advantage to get the ball in the net, with Luke Woolfenden snuffling it home from close range as a corner got flicked on to him at the back post.

Though this one was struck off for offside the visitors would eventually make it 3-1 but it would take them till the dying seconds of the game to make this happen. The Don’s refused to die in 2001 and despite the ref’s attempt to kneecap them they refused to do so here either.

They fought to the end but when Jack Taylor tapped home a flowing break down the right any final hope was finally extinguished, though no home fan could leave disappointed with the Don’s performance or spirit.

AFC Wimbledon had fought till the end and shown the whole of English football that no-one scares them. If they can continue performances like this in League Two they will join their visitors in achieving promotion.

**The Defeated Warriors Salute Their Fans**

The first 60 minutes of this match were a gargantuan tussle between two evenly matched and motivated teams of warriors.

Then the game was ruined and it will be Ipswich hosting 6th tier Maidstone United, the lowest ranked team left by far, in the 4th round next weekend. With such an easy tie falling into their laps it’s fair to say that Ipswich will be expecting to heading to round 5, just one round from the Quarter-finals.

For Don’s fans that draw makes this result even harder to swallow.

A easily reachable quarter-final berth has been ripped from their grasp by one ridiculous decision. They have faced down ridiculous decision before though and come back stronger, expect them to do so again next season.

**Stuck In The Third Round, Till Next Year**

Following AFC Wimbledon’s FA Cup adventure this season has been a joy and I wish them the best of luck for their promotion push this season.

Fragile Bees: Handle With Care

***This Time Couldn’t be Worse, Right?***

Nine days ago the Wolves were in town and left with all 3 points having inflicted a 4-1 defeat on their hosts. Now they were back for a cup game and hoping for a similar result against a Brentford team that had lost 3-1 away at Crystal Palace in the meantime.

Any hope of a repeat result were extinguished after 8 minutes as the Old Gold’s number 8, Joao Gomes, was shown a straight red for a late tackle on Christian Norgaard as the Dane tried to clear the hosts’ lines.

The away fans made their displeasure at this decision abundantly clear, but when you send a player limping off the pitch supported by two physios because they’re unable to put any weight on their right leg you have to accept some punishment for your actions.

With a player advantage for more than 80 minutes and filled with a fire to get revenge for last week’s humiliation most people would assume that the hosts would turn up the pressure, break through and fill their boots with goals. Most people would be forgetting that this is a Brentford team stuck in a rut of 5 losses in a row and a December to forget.

Since the league humiliation at the hands of today’s visitors they had also lost Frank Onyeka and Yoane Wissa to AFCON and Saman Ghoddos to the Asian Cup. Added to the bulging treatment room and the team selection dilemma for Thomas Frank has almost completely evaporated, it’s simply become ‘the fit one’s start’.

For this match that meant the return of Josh DaSilva but also Zanka, Mads Roerslev, Mikel Damsgaard and Keane Lewis-Potter, none of who could be counted as first team regulars with a fully fit squad at our disposal.

The other reason it took till the 41st minute for Brentford to make their advantage count, Neil Maupay stroking home through a forest of legs from 10 yards, was that until then all the hosts build up play had been infuriatingly ponderous.

It felt as though the players were taking the result for granted and just figured all they had to do was wait for the goals to come. When even getting the opener couldn’t force the floodgates open and given Brentford’s incredible ability to throw away leads this season I expected what came next.

Wolves equaliser came in the 63rd minute and whilst the exquisite curler from Tommy Doyle was truly exceptional, the fact that he was able to drift into acres of space on the edge of the box was just plain embarrassing from the home team’s perspective. To say many fans were frustrated to see him given the same space from the next 3 corners would be to dramatically undersell the position.

Having seen the ease with which the equaliser was created and with the results of recent weeks in mind it now seemed just a matter of waiting for the Bee’s natural fragility to shine through as the Midlander’s 10 men tore us them to shreds.

That this didn’t happen was mostly down to a lack of attacking ambition from a visiting team willing to settle for a replay that they had spent most of the game thinking was as unobtainable as a return trip to Jupiter. If they had tried their luck a little more then Doyle could have delivered the victory with his second wonder goal as he continued to be left unmarked in the same location his goal came from.

My joy at seeing my beloved Bees survive till the final whistle with scores level and our name in the hat for the next round was tempered somewhat not only by losing Captain Norgaard to injury but also by seeing Mathias Jensen, our creative metronome, join him in heading to the treatment table.

He had taken the armband from Norgaard and so to see him trudge off, with the physios in close attendance, less than 20 minutes from the end of proceedings was gut wrenching. Having seen him return from injury not so long ago it was hellish to see him limping down the tunnel again. It looked like just a knock for him and with 11 days until the replay I hope he has shaken it off in time to feature again in that one.

Worst case scenario he has to be back for Ivan Toney’s return on the 20th, as without his creation and incisive passes from midfield there may be no chances for our talisman to rifle home. Without either of Aaron Hickey or Rico Henry, both long term members of the training ground hospital team, to put it on a plate with delicious crosses from the wings our chance creation rests squarely on Jensen’s shoulders. If he is not back fit soon then our form will continue to drop off a cliff.

Our in-house hospital drama is such a joke among home fans that a lady in the row in-front of me said “we should just build a hospital at the training ground” and it honestly sounds like a good plan. At times this season it has felt like our players are made of glass and held together with no more than spit and polish.

Such fragility in our team has to be stamped out somehow and I trust Thomas Frank to find the solution. If he can find the special sauce to finally break our play-off hoo-doo then he can certainly get us back to a fully fit squad.

In the meantime though we could do with bringing in an experienced midfield metronome to guide all our green players through difficult periods of games, so that in future they don’t become so fragile when a 10-man team equalises with them through a worldie.

***How Will They Line Up For The Replay?***

If the fragile Bees win the replay it will be an away game at the Baggies in the 4th round.