Fulham game sees the worst ending possible. After full time.

The morning after the weekend before. An intriguing two days of Premier League football where, of course, for Brentford the only result that really counted was the 3-2 reverse at Fulham. A scoreline that does little to tell the story of a game that went back and forth until, eventually, there was 90th minute heartbreak after the Bees had thrown a second-half kitchen sink at our hosts. It was a defeat where any feel good factor from last weekend’s demolition of Manchester United was gone in 44 seconds although one in which, eventually, the result really could have gone either way. Elsewhere, Everton warmed up for Saturday’s trip to Lionel Road with their first point on the board whilst the Priti Patel saga had further ‘light’ shed on it. You’ve been warned so please feel free to leave now if that upsets you.

However, the real subject for discussion this morning has to be the game at Fulham. By all rights, Brentford should have been dead in the water and out of sight within the opening quarter. 2-0 down after Joao Palhinha had doubled their lead with twenty minutes on the clock whilst between their opening pair, Aleksander Mitrovic had also seen one chalked off by VAR. Truly, it was a woeful start from The Bees. Think Southampton away or Everton (FA cup) levels of bad. We would also accept: Burnley (a) or Norwich (h).

Brentford reeling. The team that had blown Manchester United off the park just a week earlier now being outclassed and outpaced. No movement and second to everything. Fans still showing wonderful support but wondering where anything would come from. Fulham one goal away from properly putting it to bed. Except, of course, they didn’t. As we’ve all seen now, The Bees clung on until 44 minutes when Christian Norgaard leathered a corner kick from Mathias Jensen straight past Bernd Leno on the volley. Our first and only real moment of attacking intent leaving the Fulham ‘keeper for dead. 2-1 at half time and, suddenly, the scoreboard offered a glimmer of hope.

It was an opportunity seized with both hands. Ivan Toney a man possessed as he found the back of the net three times. One, fair enough offside. One, on 55 minutes, as close and dubious as they come. It took a good two minutes of VAR deliberation and set squares before his trailing leg was eventually adjudged to be interfering with play. As he turned away from the Fulham goal. They’re the rules but, as we’ve seen so many times, they don’t half kill the game. It was a beautiful finish and deserved more.

Had we equalised then, who knows what might have been? Brentford with their tails up and driving forwards. As it is, things were levelled on 70. Ivan Toney, again. This time the goal allowed to stand – moreso as there was absolutely nothing wrong with it. 2-0 down and looking dead in the water now back to 2-2 and only one team in the driving seat. Fulham woke up. David Raya in nets absolutely wonderful. Save followed save as the game swung back and forth. Toney denied a late penalty after Mr Bankes deemed he’d thrown himself to ground when clean through in the box and bearing down on goal. As he does. Apparently.

A game that swung back and forth

In the end though, it wasn’t to be. Mitrovic doing a Jota. 90 minutes on the clock and he out jumped Bryan Mbeumo (don’t, just don’t) to steer home a ball that could, probably should, have been well cleared prior. Brentford not quite able to see it through. Fulham with all the points. What is their to say?

No complaints from here. We’d shot ourselves in the foot early doors but at least had sufficient about ourselves to launch a quite wonderful fight back. A game is won over 90 minutes, not 20, and whilst we couldn’t quite do the business this time the opening three games have shown there is enough about this team to suggest the season will be an exciting one. 

The player review and deeper dive will are below.

2022-23 Brentford Player Ratings – Matchweek 3

For now, the other takeaways from the game perhaps revealing the real reason for defeat. A pre-match encounter with Harry Potter (Simon, not the boy wizard) brought about this shocking revelation that.. “I’m teetotal today.” 

“I’m sorry? What?” Was the reply from TC with genuine incredulity. The human embodiment of Gunnersaurus, Brentford’s own Winston Churchill, universally known in TW8 for his bighearted exuberance and love of all things Brentford. Perhaps those vocal styling were stifled by a dry throat. Who knows?

Brentford’s own Harry Potter

Elsewhere, there was the bizarre sight, or should that be sound, of Freed From Desire being played moments before the teams walked out. Seriously? I mean, not complaining but talk about a way to stoke up the away fans. The only thing missing was a AA with Hey Jude. By all accounts, they’s also played YNWA when Liverpool visited last week. Go figure.

Right up until Norgaard's goal, the first half highlight for #BrentfordFC at Fulham was five mins before kick off and this comes over the tannoy…. pic.twitter.com/zRmOMcHEDS

— Nick Bruzon (@NickBruzon) August 22, 2022

Something which then gave their subsequent post match tweet regarding Ivan Toney an even more bizarre twist.

Imitation is the most sincere form of flattery. pic.twitter.com/M6U02HqOrd

— Fulham Football Club (@FulhamFC) August 20, 2022

I’m sorry? What?

Then there was the away end. Appreciate they are still finishing off their new stand on the river side (something that has taken even longer to build than La Sagrada Familia) but having a mixed zone of home and away fans in the bar areas behind the goal felt odd. That’s the polite term. Unsegregated football hasn’t been a thing for decades and whilst we’re all a friendly bunch in the main, it’s an emotional game. A trailblazing step in the right direction or an accident waiting to happen? There was no bother that I saw although I heard differently from others. Their next few home games see visits from Brighton and then Chelsea. Good luck.

For Brentford, Everton are next up. An 88th minute equaliser saw them pick up a first point of the season at home to Nottingham Forest. Only Wolves, Leicester City, West Ham and Manchester Untied below them in the table. It’s not been the best start, with injuries and departure compounding to their woes from last season. On paper, the perfect opposition for Brentford. In practice, they’re already in survival mode. A caged tiger of a team. Backed in to corner and fighting for their lives or, at the least, to prove all the pundits wrong. The awesome power of everyone’s favourite Brazilian, Allan, currently confined to the bench but surely set to be unleashed at Lionel Road.

Pele. Zico. Ronaldo. Socrates. Allan

Ok. Turn away now if you are going to get upset about more Priti Patel. Last time out we asked on these pages what had happened there? Put the questions out there to try and understand why our stadium had been turned into a political arena? Moreso, when the person in question holds views that are so diametrically opposed to those of the club. We eventually got a brief statement saying that she had been invited by the Premier League, journalists had gone off topic and it wasn’t our media team controlling events. It was as neutral an ‘answer’ as would have been expected.  

Bees United were quicker out of the blocks, noting that, amongst other things whilst it hadn’t been us that invited her, the club “Should have anticipated that the media would ask about wider political issues such as government policy towards asylum seekers. Brentford’s stadium thus became the background for political views which are not universally shared by fans”. 

You can read that one in full, here.

Whatever the explanation. Whatever the outcome. One thing is clear that we all share different views. The vast majority of Brentford fans would seem to be extemely unhappy about what played out. I’m still of the belief that things could have been handled differently. That things should have been handled differently. That’s me.

We’ve not even had a formal piece on the real reason for her visit but, all things considered, that horse has long since bolted and perhaps it is best one we all box off. 

Our club have always been amazingly proud of their values and the amazing work being done on that front. If any positive can be taken out of all this, it is that the reaction of so many supporters shows how much we all share these. That, for me, is the real story to take away from all of this. Now let’s never talk of it again.

Finally, if there was one thing worse than the final score at Fulham it was the disaster that befell yours truly after the game. With the club putting out a tweet before kick off about the wonderful change shirt being worn for this match, the thought process naturally gravitated towards the brown/orange. Which was duly worn. Rightly so, until walking back to the pub it snagged against a bit of metal on the side of a white van. Disaster. Nooooooo. Ruined.

Like punching a hole in the face of the Mona Lisa, a masterpiece has been ruined. Kitman Bob? The club shop? Anyone? Is there a spare out there? Does anyone have one of these Jaffa caked beauties lying around gathering dust? I’ll be at the Everton and would be happy to broker a deal. Probably let’s play safe and say in an XL.

Over to you. Please…

Nick Bruzon

Time for another road trip (or three). League and cup action await.

Brentford will travel to Everton in the fourth round of the FA Cup – ties to be played the weekend of 5^th February. Along with Spurs v Brighton and Wolves v Norwich, it is one of only three all Premier League ties. Meaning there’s a good chance of the BBC going for TV coverage along with the inevitable bore fest that will be Manchester United v Middlesbrough. Unless, of course, Aston Villa can spare us all from that one tonight when they travel to Old Trafford for the final game of the round. Manchester City have the chance to warm up for our visit the following week with a home draw against EFL club Fulham whilst next on our tour of the Premier League, Southampton, are home to Coventry City.

There was immediate, perhaps bizarre, excitement in our house when Everton came out of the hat. Aside from our own recent 1-0 win and an earlier than expected chance to visit a new ground, if Brentford show half the oomph we did against Port Vale then it could be a classic. A 4-1 win on the road with Mads Bidstrup subsequently described by Thomas Frank as a little bit of our N’Golo Kanté  ( “A big, big claim of course” – Thomas’ own words ). Talking about his “Big engine”, he used the post-match to lavish praise on the midfielder, enthusing that “his ability to press and cover so many yards across the pitch is fantastic and that acceleration when he just goes past people, I think that’s so good in the pressure.”

Mads’ reward is another ‘away’ tie.

Then, of course, we’ve the prospect of another run in with everyone’s favourite Brazilian.  Pele, Socrates, Zico, Ronaldinho…. Allan. As has already been documented on these pages, the midfielder has become a cult hero to rival Argentina’s Lucas Biglia in our house. Any chance of some bonus Allan action is one which we’ll always opt for. Especially if Everton continue to, what’s the polite term, ‘misfire’ as much as they have done in recent months. League form is best described as patchy, with only Leeds United and Watford standing between them and the bottom three.

Meaning that the purse strings could be severely tested, given the trip to Manchester City in the Premier League is just a few days later. A 7.45pm kick off on Wednesday 9^th February. Tickets for that one go on sale this Tuesday afternoon for anyone clearing that first TAP threshold of 3,400.  Away capacity for League games at The Ethiad is reckoned to be about 3,000 across the three tiers of the South Stand, so hopefully anyone with requisite form will be able to get in should they so desire. Definitely one where we’ll need to flex the plastic to cover costs.

Before all that we head to Southampton on Tuesday evening. They had the pleasure of a ‘behind closed doors’ tie in Swansea at the weekend (its Wales, innit). That one went to extra time before the Saints went, if not marching, certainly limping on.

Ralph Hasenhüttl telling Sky that his much changed team may not have enough players for tomorrow’s game, saying, ”We never know. At the moment, it’s all about lottery… You wake up in the morning and go to the training ground. You sit at breakfast and you are waiting for new [coronavirus] cases. The problem is with the fixtures coming up. It doesn’t get any easier.”

So far (Monday morning) there aren’t any noises being made about applications to have the game called off or training grounds being closed. Fingers crossed this is nothing more than sabre rattling and mind games. As much for the players’ health as the additional chaos caused by any more backlog. Let’s not forget that this fixture has already been put back once.

For Brentford, expect to see more of Bryan Mbeumo. He was back to his brilliant best, with Thomas waxing lyrical about his half hour appearance form the bench. Less the proverbial cameo and more scene stealing. Our head coach nothing that “I must say he’s been the same for us this year in the Premier League. He’s done really well after coming back from injury. We knew he wanted to play in the Cup to be in with a chance of being ready for Tuesday at Southampton and he’s just come in with three quality finishes”.

Too true, and surely he’ll find his way back in to the Brentford front line alongside Ivan when the teams are named at 6.46 on Tuesday evening.

In the meantime, you can read that piece in full, here. Come for Mads. Stay for Bryan.

For now, though, it’s a chance to charge the battery packs and prepare for the trip to Southampton. Don’t forget those Manchester City tickets tomorrow and, whilst we wait to find out when that Everton game will actually take place (Liverpool are also at home so something will have to give) here’s the rest of the draw in full….

Safe travels to the South coast and see you there…

Fourth round ties…

Crystal Palace v Hartlepool United

Bournemouth v Boreham Wood

Huddersfield Town v Barnsley

Peterborough United v Queens Park Rangers

Cambridge United v Luton Town

Southampton v Coventry City

Chelsea v Plymouth Argyle

Everton v Brentford

Kidderminster Harriers v West Ham United

Manchester United/Aston Villa v Middlesbrough

Tottenham Hotspur v Brighton and Hove Albion

Liverpool v Cardiff City

Stoke City v Wigan Athletic

Nottingham Forest v Leicester City

Manchester City v Fulham

Wolverhampton Wanderers v Norwich City

Allan awaits

Nick Bruzon

Bravery and aggression are the key as we look for Rico, Ivan and, err, Allan.

Brentford go into Sunday’s game at home to Everton with positive news on the injury front and the taste for goal after hitting three at Newcastle United last week (summarised here). The downside being our recent form has also seen defensive solidity thinner than the laughs in an episode of Mrs Browns Boys. With ten conceded in the last four games there’s only one way back from there. A battling point at St. James Park saw the focus very much being on the front foot and more will be the same when Rafa Benitez brings what is left of his injury ravaged squad to Lionel Road.

Thomas Frank used this week’s press conference to emphasise the importance, and intent, of taking the game to our opponents. The words brave and aggressive cropped up again and again with the mindset being that the best chance of beating Everton will be to outscore them. Obvious, perhaps, but why not throw caution to the wind and dictate the pace?

Thomas – come for the quotes, stay for the knitwear

Brentford are the home team and the desire to take the game to our visitors is, as Thomas noted, the piece of the puzzle that is in our hands. “It is very important that our approach is front-footed, aggressive, and brave. That is the bit I can control”, also nothing that “We need to consistently press high, be aggressive, and run in behind….we need to be able and have a mindset to take risks if you want to have a better chance of winning football matches. “

You can read that in full on Brentford ‘official’. The other good news to come out of the press conference is on the fitness front. Wissa will be on the bench whilst Mads Bech is available once more, as is Mathias Jensen. For me, Clive, this is nothing but positive. Mads gives that extra option at the back and, of course, has those long throws that cause mayhem in the box. As for Wissa, well we’re all familiar with his heroics. It’s as close to a certainty as possible that we’ll see him put in an appearance at some point. With Shandon Baptiste also getting a late run at Newcastle, all of a sudden there are options. 

This is even better news given that if ever there was a chance to get back in the saddle then today is the day. Mind you, we said the same against Norwich City and look how that turned out. Groan. Everton’s confirmed absences include Richarlison and Mason Holgate (both suspended) whilst Yerry Mina, Dominic Calvert-Lewin, Andre Gomes and Tom Davies also miss out. Indeed, there’s a stat on the BBC that highlights the importance of Calvert-Lewin, with the club winning just 21% of their games without him since the beginning of last season compared to 50% when he plays. Ultimately, stats don’t win games just as a single player does not make a team. Yet, at the same time, one can’t overlook the importance of a game-changer and, for Brentford, that absence can only be a boost.

The downside being the availability of Allan. Our H, just as with Lucas Biglia of Argentina during World Cup 2018, has become fascinated with a random player outside of our own. Whilst I’ve still no idea what drove the Biglia thing and nor does he in retrospect, it’s happened again.

Biglia. Why?

In the Premier League it is the Everton midfielder although at least this time we do know why. Much like our own Zanka, it’s the fact that he’s that rare breed of footballer known by a single name. Something that is very much associated with Brazil. And H is intrigued by it.

Pele, Alisson, Ronaldinho, Socrates, Zico….Allan (or some variant in the long list of exotic sounding South Americans) has become the refrain in the build up to this one. He’s certainly the one we have marked as a major road block to our potential success today. On a sidenote, my bookmaker (used purely for research purposes) has him at 14-1 to score at anytime today. I’m already terrified. Then again, for what its worth I’m calling this one 3-1 Brentford today so if anybody must score for the opposition then…

Allan – the main man for Everton and 14-1 to score at any time. Gulp…

The other stat of note in the build up to this concerns Lionel Road. Funnily enough, given the fortress that it has felt, less than a third of our points have come at home. This is the lowest ratio of any top-flight team and equally surprising given the way we played against Arsenal, Liverpool and Chelsea. Then again, the way we played against Brighton and Norwich City (in particular) perhaps tells a tale. Big games + big noise = big performance. The visit of Everton certainly fits into the former category so let’s hope that the rest, combined with Thomas going for goal, follows suit.

Off field, pre-match covid status checks aside (joy), the excitement surrounds the return of the Panini Adrenalyn XL cards swap-shop under the Family Stand from 1pm. Try saying that three times in a row. Fair to say H (definitely H) has taken to the trading cards with some enthusiasm. Despite the downside being a haemorrhaging of the piggy bank, he’s almost completed the whole Brentford team. Just Rico Henry and Ivan Toney (elite) to go. If anyone has either of these and is doing swaps, he’ll be there with the spares and the other ‘needs’ list from 1.30pm.

Until then, see you there. It was bitter standing on the sidelines for 90 minutes at football club yesterday so for crying out loud, don’t freeze your bits off today. Wind chill factor alone sure to dampen the spirits. No harm in wearing the pre-match beer jacket either. It’ll help the volume and keep the cold out. Bring it on. And bring your swaps.

Can anyone help complete the set?

Nick Bruzon