Sometimes it’s just too easy. The inevitable ‘shooting fish in a barrel’ of blog columns arrives as Brentford gear up for Saturday’s home derby with QPR. Whilst Fulham may have finished above us for the first time in three seasons (although there’s still much more to come on that front), once again the Bees will finish the Championship campaign clear of the not so super hoops. With just three games to go we’re 10 points ahead – Brentford on 60 to our neighbours’ 50.
Poor Ian Holloway. Whilst it looked at one stage as though he might turnaround what had become very much a damp squib of a season, normal form has now returned. Rangers’ current record in the league reads: LLLLL and , mathematically, they still aren’t safe. Only six points separate them from third bottom Blackburn Rovers. Themselves, a team who will no doubt be going hammer and tongs for a victory when they visit Griffin Park on the final game of the season. What an awkward one that could end up being.
But if the chance to go 13 points clear of the Loftus Road outfit and push them ever closer to the trapdoor wasn’t enough inspiration for Brentford this Saturday, there’s more. Much more. Whilst one can only have huge respect for all Jake Bidwell did at Griffin Park, moreso in a week that marked the three year anniversary since our ascension from League One, how good to show him he made the wrong call? If only for that #Jakejoins hashtag.
Indeed from out of that move we’ve not only seen the true emergence of Tom Field but, as excitingly, Rico Henry recover from injury and show just how the statistical model helped pick another former Dean Smith player. To have two such comfortable looking left side players really is a rare luxury and one that has provoked intriguing discussion as to just who should start in the full back berth.
Then, of course, we’ve got the chance to do the double over the neighbours. A 2-0 win for Brentford at QPR back in October was one that saw Romaine Sawyers hit an absolute screamer to double our lead. Writing about that one at the time, it was noted on these pages that : “”Sure, the QPR defence looked holier than the Pope (and were about as benevolent) but you still need the technique to put it away. What. A. Finish.
“The look on his face before he hit it”, opined one terrace wag to me, “you just knew what was going to happen”. And sure enough, it did.””
More of the same would be just wonderful.
View from the terrace – the net starts to bulge from Romaine’s rocket
But, of course, the biggest incentive of them all is ‘that column’, written by Ian Holloway in his pre-season guise as a pundit for Sky Sports. In it, he tipped Brentford to be relegated, saying we’d finish 23rd and incorrectly claiming we’d punched above our weight under Warbs.
“ Brentford are regressing. Mark Warburton got them punching above their weight. They still haven’t replaced Andre Gray and Alan Judge will be missing for the start of the season. They could be in trouble.”
Sorry, Ian. Punching above our weight? Regressing? The table doesn’t lie. It didn’t then. It didn’t under Dean Smith last year when we finished above both Fulham and QPR in the table (despite the early sale of Gray and the injury enforced absence of the Judge). It certainly doesn’t now. Brentford sit in 11th place. QPR are down down in 17th and still looking down the barrel of relegation.
I’m not Dean Smith. I’m just the numpty on the terrace. But even I can predict what his pre-match team talk might be on Saturday afternoon . Something Twitter correspondent Luis Adriano also noted might be making an appearance.
I can’t wait for Saturday. A West London derby is always a great thing but to have two of them back to back (of course, the trip to play off chasing Fulham is the following week) is a rare treat.
Here’s to a repeat of October. For more than one reason….
I’m sure this was full earlier? Still eight minutes to go
Nick Bruzon
BrentfordFC 
A small minded pub team,and like me your not from London.
A grammatically (you’re not your), geographically (perhaps confusing Brentford in West London with Brentwood in Essex) and factually incorrect first catch of the day . Thank you
Too easy Nick…..abait and a nibble…..
Dear Mr IOW QPR person
Given your level of literacy, I might have to spell this out in very simple terms.
We have been over this on so many occasions it’s getting very boring. Just look at the history of your (correctly used this time) club and you’ll find that according to your (see previous use) rules you’re (= you are) as much Middlesex as we are (as indeed are Fulham). Except the boundaries then changed and now we’re all part of Greater London and have been for 50 years almost. Happened about the same time as your club’s insidious (you might have to look that one up) plot to swallow us up, which failed so miserably.
I hope this now makes it clear.
Regards
Gordon
Hear,hear ! Well stated,Gordon.
Do you honestly believe Rangers will get relegated? Blackburn pick up at least seven points from a possible nine? Forest or Birmingham suddenly hit form?
QPR have been at the swimming pool for the last month, Holloway has been giving some players a chance, some of whom won’t be there next season, and a few better ones who will. You are more than welcome to offer a Karl Henry a contract.
Bidwell? Average. Not exactly worth spouting your vitriol over in the manner that Sinton or Rowlands probably still make you do.
Whilst in part agreeing with the post about the decline of the Middlesex County Council, this took place in 1965, the same year that Brentford defeated Rangers for what turned out to be a couple of generations or over fifty years. The takeover, similar to the merger between QPR and Fulham in the eighties, never materialised, and was never backed by Rangers fans, so why are you so bitter?
Enjoy your mid-table success, Rangers will be a better side next season, but you know that already don’t you?
Bitter? Quite the opposite. Love getting one over any of our rivals, moreso our ‘nearest and dearest’. As, surely, would any team. That there’s a lot of history there, not just the failed takeover, makes it all the sweeter.
As for Holloway’s pre-season predictions… Well, I suppose in a way we should be grateful. What a wonderful bit of additional inspiration, should any have been required. The chance to really stretch out the lead over the man (and a former Bee) who had condemned us without a ball even being kicked would only crown the occasion further.
I love a West London derby. It won’t be easy but the prize for winning will be immense. It’s what football is about.
As for a possible relegation? Obviously the stats suggest you should survive. But a run of five straight defeats and the trapdoor still open won’t do the nerves any favours. Until safety is assured then anything is possible….
Dear Mr Wulfgar
Even while on a pretty appalling run, I do agree that relegation for yourselves is very unlikely.
If you don’t mind we’ll pass on the boy Henry.
So do you actually see Jake Bidwell as more than a very solid, steady player? I would never knock the job he did for us, but he never set the world alight. He must have come on quite a lot.
I have never come across one Brentford fan who slagged off Andy Sinton. Probably has a lot to do with the way he conducted himself. Which is precisely why Rowlands (egged on by pantomime villain Mark ‘I love Millwall’ Bircham) is so despised.
I do apologise for getting the year wrong re. Middlesex County Council. Bit before my time. However, the bit about QPR being from Middlesex originally (like Fulham) still holds true.
Regards
Gordon
In no particular order.
Ollie’s predictions, no big deal. He wasn’t in charge then. All I would have guessed correctly at the season’s start is that Rotherham will go down, and Newcastle probably up.
Immense? For you maybe, not for us. It’s not as if there are any prizes up for grabs.
Rangers are 150-1 for relegation, easy money.
Bidwell, as I said is average, he may not get a look in if Jack Robinson can finally stay fit.
Much as I’m very pro Middlesex, most people see the W12 postcode, as opposed to the SW ones of Fulham and of the Money Launderers, along with your Twickenham variety as reason enough. Hence, West London is ours. History is bunk unless it suits your argument.
Present day Brentford now part of west London, as is Twickenham. Middlesex now part of bunking history unfortunately.I now live in Surrey with a TW postcode.
It has been GOOD (not immense) to see you lot squirming at the wrong end of the table for most of the season, it looks like your safe?But a defeat on Saturday and other results go against you, it could be squeaky bum time.
You do realise postcodes are allocated by employees of Royal Mail. Usually old postmen who cant do the rounds anymore. I know this as I used to work alongside such a department. Yet you bear so much emphasis as to what a postman with a dodgy knee did on his lunch break once.
Dear Mr Wulfgar
It’s actually quite refreshing to deal with someone who can string a sentence together (unlike our friend from the IOW who has mysteriously disappeared into the ether).
I would happily meet you for a drink on Saturday but might have to explain the whole Middlesex thing. You started there, moved a couple of times within the county before pretty much staying there until it changed as it did in Brentford.
Bring on the Middlesex derby therefore (or as they say after 1965, another Greater London affair!!).
Regards
Gordon
PPS. Shepherds Bush play in the Middlesex Cricket League. Go figure.
Regards
Gordon
Bring on the game, hard one to call & much as I want Brentford to win well this is a derby & anything can happen. We are unpredictable at the best of times. QPR won’t go down for me, they’ll get a result somewhere.
QPR may not see us as rivals & that’s up to them, for me & us they most definitely are. The word bitter was used negatively, happy to say that for me there is some bitterness towards their club, not the fans. The generations that came before us sacrificed a lot to keep the QPR takeover at bay. We almost lost our club, and all its history with it. Derby games & football rivalries should have a degree of bitterness around them, it’s what makes football special. If we’re being called bitter I’ll take it as a compliment.
The result will take care of itself, hoping very much it is our day.