No irony was lost as strikers Bradley Clayton and Scott Hogan turned out for the Brentford development squad against QPR on Monday. With Blackburn Rovers up next, was this a message? And, if so, from who to who?
I still don’t understand Dean Smith’s logic in starting our Championship game against QPR with no recognised striker but Flemming Pedersen certainly put his front men through their paces yesterday. In a 0-0 where the Bees were reported to have had the vast majority of the action, I’d imagine he’ll have felt slightly disappointed to come away without the win.
That said, a full game for Bradley and 75 minutes for Scott can only be seen as a positive. Was this with a view to one of them stepping up to the first team squad for the visit of Blackburn Rovers? Or have the likes of Lasse Vibe and Marco Djuricin now learned whatever lesson Dean Smith was trying to teach them?
Personally, I’m still not sure what he hoped to achieve or what that lesson was. This, despite the ‘explanation’ offered in the post match press conferences.
Given the current ‘form’ (as much a breach of trades descriptions as the previously used term, ‘explanation’) I hope Dean is able to return is to some type of normality. Whatever that is.
One New Road observer has shared the following graphic with me to illustrate the reversal of fortune we currently find ourselves experiencing . Points earned in our previous managers’ last ten games.
Point for point, both Terry Butcher and even Marinus (yes, you read that correctly), are showing as having inspired their teams to have out scored our current set up. The latter achieving this in a game less, given he was dismissed after a mere 9 Championship fixtures.
Being honest, I have had to call this graphic into question a little. If for no other reason than was Leroy’s record really as good as 3 points from 30? Those who sat through the sad end to his time at Griffin Park would probably dispute we even did that well.
But no, he swears it’s the genuine article and, frankly, I’m too lazy to trawl back through the record books and tick back through a catalogue of, mostly, doom and gloom.
Either way, it doesn’t make great reading and just shows to highlight our current predicament of sliding the wrong way down the table. 7(seven) points off relegation, surely that gap is too big to consider. Certainly the bookmakers think so, seeing us as 100-1 to suffer that fate despite the ignominy of the reverse at Loftus Road.
With a game in hand on the teams below us, who only have 9 left to play, it would need a pretty disastrous swing. Albeit one that is mathematically possible. But with Charlton and Rotherham both finding their form these last few games, and the Bees still to play 6 of those in that basement region, let’s not get complacent. A morale boosting win at home to Blackburn on Saturday will be just what the doctor ordered.
After season after season of good results, we had to hit a bump in the road eventually. Life isn’t always easy. Likewise, please don’t anybody take this as me calling for a return to the Dijkhuizen or Butcher eras.
I’m sure Dean would love to be able to picture a scene where things were that comfortable he could put his feet up, watch Natalie Sawyer read out the scores and relax as the results roll in whilst nibbling on a slice of cranberry and orange cake. Metaphorically speaking, of course.
Instead we and he are just going to have to, dare I say it, “go again”. It’s time to roll up the sleeves and maybe wear a heart on them. Both at the training ground and then against Blackburn this weekend. The points will come – I’d just be a lot happier if it was sooner than later.
Nick Bruzon
BrentfordFC 