No sooner have Birmingham City left Griffin Park than Brentford are preparing for the next home game – a Capital One Cup tie with Felix ‘nil points’ Magath’s Fulham team on Tuesday. Whilst, no doubt, there’ll be further build up to the Fulham game in the next column, for now here’s a chance to catch up on those other things that there simply wasn’t enough space to write about following the draw with Birmingham (along with an 11th hour bonus).
My feelings on referee Robert Madley have been well documented in the past and, disappointingly, these were proven to be spot on as this fusion of Stroud, Biggar and Attwell once again showed all the decision-making ability of a tombola.
View from the terrace – David tells Madley to button it, as Tony troops off
The one positive for me is that at least I wasn’t alone in this opinion. Any thoughts of “Could it have just been me?” were dispelled with a read of Greville Waterman’s BFCtalk column on the subject. A very therapeutic piece for those of you seeing red about the card happy man in black.
Still, at least Robert wasn’t alone in having a stinker on Saturday. The BBC didn’t even have the excuse of having had to make a snap decision. I’m not sure which match their correspondent was watching but on returning home I read their website with amusement. Specifically the part of the match report that described how goalkeeper Tony Craig had been sent off – although at least substitute ‘keeper David Button had made some smart saves.
Not even West London’s leading journo called this transfer swoop (the BBC have, since, corrected)
I wrote on Saturday about Natalie Sawyer and Hayley McQueen’s ALS ice bucket challenge. Later that day footage emerged of Matthew Benham completing his own, following a nomination from the Slough Town bound Alan Judge.
I’ve also had to rise to the challenge, following nomination from Luis Adriano. You can catch the wobbly action, some of the worst shorts Brentford have ever worn and the next set of nominees (and do feel free to encourage them along) here. Warning:it does involve some slipped pecs and paunch.
Sunday afternoon saw a thumping 4-0 win for Tottenham against the Loftus Road mob. A four goal defeat mirrors that suffered by Fulham the day before and gives a wonderful sense of symmetery to the bottom of the Premiership and Championship tables.
The BBC have, at least, got the tables right. Enjoy
Interestingly, Monday morning sees the Daily Telegraph reporting that Fulham boss Magath only has one game left in which to hang on to his job. You can read their story, here and then think on about the significance of what that next game is….
As one correspondent put it, “Tuesday just gets better“.
BrentfordFC 
I think the “Goalkeeper Tony Craig” shows the report was written by someone not even at the game. Isn’t there a keeper called Tony Caig out there in that lower league football abyss we left behind in May? The fact the report ends with “substitute goalkeeper David Button” backs my theory as surely, a proper journo at the proper game, would have seen a replacement goalkeeper properly come on from the bench had this happened. The BBC need to see who gave them this report because I think they snuck off and wrote their report from a hotel room just using the Press Association written commentaries but didn’t know their r’s* from their elbow.
(*CRaig vs Caig).
Ps. well done again for the icebucket and good to see The Owner game enough to get involved.