Look positive. Brentford remain unbeaten in the Championship since late October. A 1-1 draw at Swansea City saw our hosts punch, kick and elbow their way back to second place in the table. Two points ahead of the Bees but with an additional game played. They travel to Rotherham on Saturday. We’ve another showdown with Wycombe Wanderers at Lionel Road. It was a game that we’re all left feeling hard done by after dominating play yet being kicked off the park by Steve Cooper’s unattractive brand of physical and cynical football. Clearly, he’s a fan of that approach and when you get a referee as innocuous as John Brooks was then its understandable why. It was a game crying out for the no-nonsense card waving of Keith Stroud but we were given Ray Biggar 2 . With Josh Dasilva , Vitaly Janelt and Sergi Canos amongst those being particularly brutalised Keith would have stamped it out in a moment. Instead, the only stamping was from a Swans team allowed to haul us off the ball with abandon and despite being, eventually, reduced to ten men still saw Jake Bidwell’s elbow to David Raya go unnoticed as the equaliser drifted in .
Sour grapes? No. Frustration? Yes!! Swansea are a rock solid team with a, generally water tight defence. They’re where they are for good reason. Some fair, some foul. It was a mammoth game for us and we more than matched the home team. Raya rarely troubled as Brentford took the game by the scuff of its neck and drove forward. Unfortunately, Swansea took Brentford by the scruff of our necks and did all possible to kill it. Rico Henry came oh so close in the first half as did Bryan Mbeumo. At one point he and Henrik tripping over each other to head the ball home fand, instead, conspiring to miss. No matter, it would come soon.
The magical Matthias Jensen opened up the Swansea defence as easily as he would a packet of fish fingers to free Josh in the second half. Surely now. Surely….? Nooooooo. The ‘keeper got in the way as the goal opened up. But eventually the pressure paid. With Swansea finally down to ten men after Kyle Naughton was eventually shown a second yellow card (having previously dodged more bullets than the lovely Debbie McGhee facing a blindfolded Paul Daniels back in the day), there was Tarique Fosu to head home a Dalsgaard cross in the 74th minute.
Get in!! Our house erupted. Crisps in the air. Percy Pigs scattered everywhere in a celebration of relief and excitement. A goal and a man up. Dominating the game. This could only go one way. And sure enough, it did. It’s Brentford, innit?
To be fair, this one wasn’t down to us. A free kick given away near there touchline was delivered in to the box by Conor Hourihane. IT WAS a great ball in, to be fair, but should still have been meat and drink to David Raya. Instead, he was surrounded by Swansea players with Jake Bidwell unable to match us by fair means so resorting to foul. His elbow to Raya seen by everybody but Mr Brooks. Amazing. How? We were already screaming at the tv before Hourihane’s delivery was able to continue unchecked into the back of the net. Even Thomas called it at full time saying “I think it (the equaliser) is a foul. I think there’s an elbow in the face and with VAR it would be disallowed, but the ball is put into a brilliant area.”
I’m not stealing the photo for this one. No idea what the legal people at ‘Rex Features’ are like but do check out the BBC match report for the full, unadulterated evidence of just how blatant this was.
Thomas was, as ever, being diplomatic. There was no ‘think’ about it. It was there and clear to all. Instead, the scores were level and from that point on every effort was made to run down the clock. Every ‘foul’ on the home team milked to the absolute nth degree. Poor Andre Ayew – please could somebody check in on him today and give us the ‘all clear’. They way he flopped around like a fish out of water had me genuinely fearing for his life.
Credit to Swansea. They had a job to do and did it well. Credit to Steve Cooper. Sometimes ugly works. Dirty play and brutal assault have their place in football if the referee won’t punish the assailants . As it was, Mr. Brooks still showed five yellows (including the second for Naughton) but on any other night, or with Keith in charge, one could honestly have expected the game to be abandoned and a nominal 3-0 win awarded to Brentford due to the Swans having insufficient players left on the pitch to continue.
You get the point. There’s no point me moaning anymore. I’ll leave that one to Harry who was unaware his own full time moment was being captured ! Instead, its on to Saturday and the visit from Wycombe. Destiny still well well in our hands. A win would have been marvellous but the most important thing is that we didn’t lose. Didn’t allow Swansea the chance to get further ahead. If there was any justice we’d have gone home with all three points but that’s not how football works. Oh well, we’ll just have to see what the weekend brings. With Rotherham beating Middlesbrough in some style last night, I do wonder what twists the weekend may still hold?
Nick Bruzon
BrentfordFC 
No argument that the Bees were the better team last night, just as Swansea were in London when that late winner was unfairly chalked off. But it seems that fish bleed when goalies do not. What was that red liquid on the tissue used to clean up Ayew’s nose after the elbow made contact?
There well have been some blood but surely all that rolling around was not warranted. You also didn’t mention the cynical blocks and trips committed. It was well into the match before a card was issued,therfore giving your players more attempts at on ours.
Swans had a few bad luck endings during that part of the season but Ayew was nearly a yard offside when the ball was kicked back in November. Even with the slightly unhelpful camera angle, there’s no doubt he’s offside (and no excuse to be either).
Spot on with your comments Nick. How Swansea are so high in the league beggars belief if they play that brand of football every week. The lads really took the game to Swansea which probably surprised them. It’s really frustrating we didn’t win but it wasn’t down to Sorensen’s needless foul on Lowe out by the touch line or that they did a job on Raya for the resulting free kick. We drew because of our inability to convert more of the chances we created. With possession of 65% and a total shot ratio of 21:2 we could and most definitely should have won that game last night. I think anything is possible with our team and the run in will be really exciting and maybe with a couple of experienced additions to the squad it will help get us over the line into the PL.
Did you watch us outplay you on your own pitch? Did you watch us outplay Norwich on their pitch? Just because we played badly last night, you assume our position is false. That’s some mystifying logic right there.
I might be wrong but It was more the fact that your manager had decided that you were going to kick us from the kick off .it just shows that he doesnt seem to believe that you can win a fair game against us .
No point whinging. The truth is that Brentford should have had the game sen up by half time – and certainly by the time of the equaliser. Brentford left the door ajar and Swansea took full advantage, unfortunately.
Also, careful what you wish for asking for Keith Stroud.
What can you say ? Brentford played very well, and Swansea managed by Steve Cooper, a man devoid of any visible personality whatsoever – scrambled a draw.
Despite all the fouls it was therefore something of a surprise to see mutual respect the players seemed to have for each other at the final whistle.
I remember Steve Coopers interview after the Rico incident during the play offs last season, when he said it was a definite foul and deserved a red card.
Perhaps his bitterness at the semi final defeat and the subsequent rescinding of that card – fester on.
He bears a malice, which his players, despite ‘instructions’ do not.
In view of some comments I revisited the highlights of the home game, Ayew’s late guiding the ball into the net was 100% off-side and that game was a fair result. Swansea may have had the better of the overall play but Brentford created the clearer chances.