It could be YOU….. Brentford reveal wonderful opportunity for one family and one fan.

Well here’s something that doesn’t come around very often.  By which we mean, ever. A money can’t buy opportunity and the chance to write yourself into Brentford FC history. The club announced yesterday that with the Lionel Road ground breaking ceremony due to take place on March 19th, one family will be given the opportunity to plant the first, historic shovel into the ground and, thus, officially, commence the digging work on construction of our new home.

The club are looking for a family with a special Brentford story and are asking you to tell them why yours deserves this place in Brentford’s history.  How far back does your family history of supporting The Bees go? What lengths does your family go to in following Brentford? How many generations attend matches together?  ( I make no apologies, I’ve lifted direct from the official site there to get to the meat of this one).

The full details are available on the website now and you’ve just under two weeks to get your entries in. There’s a hashtag, too – #ForeverBrentford . So what are you waiting for?

Put simply, this is incredible. What a gesture and a world away from the usual photo op seen in such circumstances of the Chairman leaning on a shovel in a high viz jacket and hard hat. Then again, this level of supporter and community interaction is what we’re all about and what Brentford have been doing for years. Putting the supporters and putting the family at the heart of it all. Certainly, something I’ve been discovering more and more as my own has grown.

But wait, there’s more. Not only are the club looking for a special Brentford family but there’s a chance for ANY fan to be involved. Both in terms of attending the ceremony aswell as then being given one of the special ground breaking shovels being used for the event. The same website article has details of the draw which will see one other supporter being given the chance to attend. There’s nothing more complex to do than add your fan number, details and then hope the luck of the draw is on your side.

I love this club. What a way to embrace the fans. Although, by the same virtue, I’m still hoping we also get to to see Matthew Benham, Cliff Crown, Mark Devlin et al lined up in their hard hats. It wouldn’t be a new stadium without it.

Nick Bruzon

Time for a Halloween horror show? Will ten times better Harlee be left to eat his words?

There’s not much more we can really say going into this one. Brentford travel to Birmingham City this evening for a game where our ex-captain Harlee Dean has ensured that the Bees have nothing to lose and everything to gain with his words prior to the weekend’s 0-0 draw against Aston Villa. And closer to home, Yoann Barbet and John Egan have been getting into the Halloween vibe as they’ve been out and about meeting some very excited young fans.

But first, St. Andrews. Tonight’s game had already been one heavily laden with anticipation following our recent transfer activity. If Wycombe Wanderers are sometimes referred to as Brentford B (such has been the procession of players from TW8 to Adams Park) should Birmingham share twin town status with Brentford ? Scott Hogan moved to the city, c/o Aston Villa, in January. A move which, sadly, hasn’t fared that well and sees him already touted for a ‘cut price’ sale.  Then of course we had that gut busting triple whammy over the summer. Jota, Harlee and Maxime Colin all sold to Birmingham City on deadline day for a cool £12million.

It would be fair to say that the immediacy and surprise of selling three fan favourites to a divisional rival left many frustrated. Myself included. Yet now the dust has settled it is Brentford who find themselves four points (effectively five when you factor in our goal difference being 13 better) clear of the Blues. The chance to really prove a point was something that already had fans keen to get to this one.

And then Harlee opened his mouth to make ‘that comment’ about his current team mates relative to his former ones:

“We’ve got quality in that squad. I’ve been in teams where we’ve finished fifth in this league and missed out on promotion by play offs. And this squad is ten times better than that. Its just about getting the balance right.”

Ten. Times. Better. I’m still laughing. We were awesome that season. City have been bang average this time around. Understandably he’s come in for all amount of scorn in regards to this claim. A claim which was followed up by his side’s lethargic draw with Aston Villa on Sunday. Hey, at least they kept a clean sheet although Jota will still be kicking himself about the chance he missed when clean through.

Embed from Getty Images

 

Say what you want. Nobody can doubt the size or history of Birmingham City. Yet reputation and former glories count for nothing when you are slugging it out in the Championship. Something Leeds United, Aston Villa et al have found out when they take on…..teams like Brentford. Whilst Dean Smith may not be viewing this as any form of grudge match, you can be sure our fans are well up for this and are going to be out to make themselves heard. Bring it on…

Off field, the club celebrated Halloween by playing trick or treat on some of our locally based Junior Bees. John Egan and Yoann Barbet donned the fancy dress to knock on the doors of some very excited young fans.

A familiar face welcomed visitors

If you haven’t seen the film already, you can catch this below (and the full story is on official). I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. This club is second to none for embracing the local community and our fanbase. Whether it be the family fun day, open day at the training ground or the Christmas party the players are never anything but 100% genuine; the club are only ever 100% into it. I can’t imagine a Manchester United or an Arsenal doing all of this, for free, on such a regular basis. Getting out into the community or giving the fans a chance to meet their idols. The reaction from the kids says it all and there’s a huge THANK YOU from me given Harry’s chance to participate.

Although in retrospect, and given what is coming this evening, perhaps best that his comments at the end were more to do with the Buzz Bee pumpkin lantern and less with what he said off camera about a former captain. To the current one….

John. Yoann. Thank you. And if you could go and lay on another Halloween horror show, at St. Andrews, that would be fantastic.

The players do their thing. HB is really into satsumas…

Nick Bruzon

Brentford are top of the pile when it comes to Christmas

Here’s a thing. Brentford FC is brilliant. And that’s a fact. Whatever is happening on the pitch – win, lose or draw (the result rather than the early 90’s pictionary aping TV show fronted by Danny Baker) – nobody could deny that when it comes to family, The Bees are top of the pile.

Last night saw the now traditional Junior Bees Christmas event at Griffin Park. As ever, the first team squad were in full attendance along with Head Coach Dean Smith. As ever, they were nothing but welcoming to those youngsters out to meet their heroes. And possibly the mums and dads, too!

One could have been forgiven for perhaps imagining a slightly jaded mood after Saturday. Far from it. The place was rocking to the tune of Christmas carols as the squad signed autographs and hosted all manner of party games.

Giant Jenga with Romaine Sawyers? Snowball toss with Yoann Barbet and Maxime Colin? Daniel Bentley and Jack Bonham amongst those at the child friendly version of ‘beer pong’? It had them all, and more.

 

Sam Saunders and Ryan Woods were holed up in the clubshop at the table usually reserved for Greville’s book signings. Harlee Dean was running the fitness machine challenge whilst none other than Alan Judge and Alan McCormack were amongst those to be found in the home dressing room. Oh for a repeat this weekend.

But whoever the kids met and wherever you went, to a man the squad were nothing but brilliant. Signing player cards and posing for photographs with everybody. My own son was in tears at the end, “Nooo daddy. I don’t want to go home.”

Sadly, there was no Jota shaped parcel under the giant Christmas tree on the Braemar Road forecourt. However, there’s always December 25th for that to happen. Come on Santa, I have been good this year.

In all seriousness though, whilst it’s easy to knock the team when results don’t go as expected one can’t help but be impressed by the positive vibe on display last night. And that was just Lasse.

Saturday is another day and another chance to get back to winning ways. Thanks to the smile on my lad’s face last night and this morning’s request “To take my Bees hat and badge to nursery to show everybody” (him, not me – I’ve still got a cupcake from the cake stall), I’m going into the game with a renewed sense of optimism and pride.

Great job, Bees. Thank you. Now let’s go do it at weekend.

Dean welcomed all

Nick Bruzon

Video nice or video nasty?

This season, Brentford have launched their official YouTube channel.

It is an additional means of catching up on both match highlights and fan recorded action which, as we are constantly reminded, also means the later can be shown legitimately on the internet rather than as independently hosted videos which, of course, would contravene League regulations.

Personally, I think this is a good thing – the YouTube channel, I mean.  It is a great supplement to Beesplayer where subscribers still retain the exclusivity of commentary, amongst other features.

This fan’s eye view is a fascinating insight into how other people see the game and if the League are that worried by a few poor quality mobile phone clips then it’s a pretty sad state of affairs.  Whilst it is a pity these cannot (officially) be hosted in their own right at least, this way, there is still a chance to view those that the club selects. Likewise, the mid/post game terrace videos that the Beesotted crew put together always make fascinating viewing.

This current day filming, regardless of quality, is our history of the future and we should be capturing/sharing as much of it as possible.

Otherwise, clubs face the prospect of becoming another North Korea/Cardiff City where the only view is the official one sanctioned by some tinpot dictator. I’ve no particular time for Cardiff but, as with Hull City, every genuine football fan seems shocked by the ongoing actions of Vincent Tan and Doctor Assem Allam.

To read the rest of this article, season 2013/14 is now available to download onto Kindle, in full. Containing previously unseen content, you can do so here for less than the cost of one matchday programme.

 Thanks for reading over the course of the campaign. For now I need to make space on this page for any follow up.  The ‘close season’ / World Cup columns continue in full, further on in this site.