Hopes, dreams and shocks – FA Cup still delivers. Plus fourth round ball details.

7pm, Monday night. The draw for the FA Cup fourth round takes place. And the fifth. Brentford are in it following Saturday evening’s impressive showing from our youngsters. So are Chorley after their own fine win over (not Wayne Rooney’s) Derby County on Saturday lunchtime. It was a result which set the tone for the weekend. Leeds United fell apart. Again. Blackpool despatched an abject West Bromwich Albion. In an even bigger shock, Sheffield United won a match. There would be no further slip ups from the big boys with Liverpool, Manchester City, Chelsea and Spurs amongst those into the bag of balls. Cripes, even Arsenal got through.

A velvet bag awaits…

So, when is it? 7(seven)pm is the designated hour. You can follow the action on the FA Player or on BBC2. Thankfully, for once, we’re not obligated to watch The One Show as the draw has its own specialist programme presented by Mark Chapman (not that one) rather than segued between features on hedgehog hibernation and ten things Gyles Brandreth does to alleviate Lockdown boredom.

BT sport also have an extensive programme that features the final chance of an upset when Stockport County host West Ham. Who doesn’t love a cup shock and I think the Hammers have enough about them to pull one off.  Worth watching if for no other reason than than Brentford loanee Said Benrahma likely to be give a rare start.

As for the balls themselves, Brentford are number 24 (out of 32). Liverpool are 23 and Manchester City 25. We’re very much the meat in a top flight sandwich that nobody will be wanting to take a bite out of. Both teams we’ve faced in this competition before, as are Chelsea – ball 27. Our league cup conquerors, Spurs, are number 4.

The quintessential Brentford FA Cup image

The Marine – Tottenham was huge enjoyable for the neutral (of which there can’t have been many outside of Seven Sisters) , at least until the second goal went in. That said, the non-leaguers still lasted longer against Jose Mourinho’s outfit before going a goal down whilst almost had the temerity to take the least themsevels. With the eyes of the world (and several supporters sitting aside garden sheds watching) Joe Hart’s blushes were only saved by the woodwork with the scores still level. And that…well it would have been dreamland for Marine. 

But we’ve been there and done that. For me (Clive) the chance to see how the current generation fair at Anfield would be the ideal scenario. Even if we are stuck watching it on TV. Instead, it’ll probably end up being away to Nottingham Forest.

We played at Livepool back in 88/89. There was no quarter-final upset

The fourth round draw is immediately followed by that for the fifth. Ball numbers will be generated at that point. Go figure. However, the numbers for the next round are as follows:

1) Plymouth Argyle

2) Southampton / Shrewsbury Town

3) Chorley

4) Spurs

5) Wolverhampton Wanderers

6) Stockport County / West Ham

7 (seven) AFC Bournemouth

8) Manchester United

9) Swansea City

10) Everton 

11) Nottingham Forest

12) Arsenal

13) Barnsley 

14) Sheffield United

15) Millwall

16) Doncaster Rovers

17) Leicester City

18) Wycombe Wanderers

19) Crawley Town

20) Burnley

21) Bristol City

22) FulhamL

23) Liverpool

24) Brentford

25) Manchester City

26) Luton Town

27) Chelsea

28) Sheffield Wednesday

29) Norwich City 

30) Blackpool

31) Brighton & Hove Albion

32) Cheltenham Town

The third round was one of the best yet. For once, the presence of television and the spreading out of the fixtures something to be thankful for. Traditionalists (myself included) have argued for years that the dilution of the games – spreading over four of five days – has been killing the magic. Yet with supporters of all clubs confined to barracks at present, this is exactly what we needed to make a bad situation slightly more bearable. Game after game after game. Upset following upset. 

Let’s see if West Ham can pull off another one this evening. After the draw, of course. Here’s hoping for a big name. And also the prospect of a Crawley – Chorley…..

Could it be Chelsea again?

Nick Bruzon

Are these the worst kits of 2015/16 ?

With Brentford having now launched next season’s home and away kits, thoughts have turned to other clubs and what they’ll be turning out in. From Newcastle United to Watford there are certainly what we could call some ‘eye catching’ designs out there. And there’s interesting news on the sponsors front where we also have further update from Hull City AFC, amongst others, who of course featured in yesterday’s column regarding their proposed name change. Not to mention a missed opportunity at Griffin Park…..

But first, kit. Brentford’s new shirts seem to have been universally well received.

This is ours – as seen on the official club site

Looking further afield, the same is not necessarily true and where I mentioned ‘eye catching before, perhaps eye gouging would have been a more appropriate term. Whilst not every club has shown it’s hand, enough have – revealing some true horrors – that we can already put together a top five of 2015/16’s worst home kits.

5: Dagenham & Redbridge. The Daggers have been traditionally red, sometimes with blue offset, and twice previously have gone for both colours in stripes. They’ve gone down this route for a third time but what a mish-mash. One red sleeve, one blue sleeve and then the alternate blue stripes are of ever decreasing width from left to right as you look at it. And they’ve got a new badge – with some daggers on it (the modern equivalent of our funky bee?)

The Daggers looking anything but sharp

4: Bradford City AFC. This is one team who haven’t been afraid to mix it up in the past. They’ve had some truly brilliant/bonkers takes on the claret and amber over the years. That said, this takes things to another level. You should wear a football shirt to, erm, play football in. Not to play chess, on.

Come for the football; stay for the draughts

3: Newcastle United: I feel sorry for Newcastle. Their black and white stripes are probably one of the most iconic designs in football. A style recognised the world over and, as such, to overly mix things up must be a tough job. They tried it last season with a broad black yoke and they’ve tried it again this year with the addition of blue (something that has very rarely featured). Everywhere.

From the morally dubious sponsor to the collar and cuffs, things begin to get a bit distracting. Then we have the black stripes themselves, which have had additional diagonal blue stripes added in to the lower half. Less mixing things up and more throwing things up.

White, black and blue – the traditional Newcastle colours

2: Cambridge United I’ve gone for this but it was a tough call. I could just has easily have picked Crawley Town. Both clubs (like the high viz Huddersfield United ‘away’ have adopted one of Puma’s half and half templates.

This is the shirt equivalent of one of ‘those scarves’.

Presumably the template was added to their catalogue to make up the numbers yet, incredibly, these three clubs have all picked it. The right hand side sees the traditional club colour. The left sees that colour interwoven with black diagonal stripes of varying width between them.

Crawley have already announced they are sticking with this for two seasons – their model looks suitably embarrassed at this though.

As if relegation hadn’t been bad enough

However, Cambridge scoop the prize – simply, because they’ve used a hashtag to justify it. Regular readers will know of my disgust for such things, and whilst it isn’t #novemberkings, we aren’t too far off in the crap marketing stakes.

Terrible kit – and a hashtag

1: Watford. I had nothing but congratulations for Watford and their supporters when they got promoted from the Championship last season. I have nothing but commiserations for Watford and their supporters about what the team will be wearing in the top flight.

Subtlety and tradition have gone out of the window. Instead of the yellow with black and, sometimes, red trim they’ve opted for hoops. Lots of hoops. Whilst these may be in black and yellow, there are so many that, and of such differing thickness, as to make Dagenham’s shirt suddenly seem discreet. And, like Cambridge before them, there’s a slogan (thankfully no hashtag, yet).

To make it worse though, Watford’s appears to be a bespoke effort. Somebody has actually chosen and designed this. Maybe it is meant as a ‘hornet’ style but, as a traditionalist, if you want comedy then that’s what the change kit is for. At least the U’s could hide behind a template.

Presumably the tickets at Vicarage Road will come with a warning that the strobe effect from watching Watford running around could cause seizure.

When bad marketing meets bad design, you get this

As a side note, I also promised some updates on the sponsorship front. Hull City AFC has recently announced a tie in with Flamingo Land. I’m really hoping they follow their stunning ‘tiger stripe’ efforts of the early 90s with a similar pun related, flamingo style away kit when that gets launched. And congratulations, by the way, as their proposed name change to Hull Tigers was, again, kicked into touch yesterday – this time at a meeting of the Football Association Council.

Hull City owner Doctor Assem Allam had always promised to throw his toys out of the pram (not literally, although who knows what he gets up it in his spare time) and walk away if he didn’t get his way. So will he be true to his word or will the lure of being a club owner remain too much and he’ll just hope everybody now forgets about his threat.

In a very brief statement on the official club site he told supporters, “We always knew that following a change to the FA’s policy, the chances of changing the name were slim but we also feel it is important to fight for what you believe in and we believe that being called Hull Tigers would be the best strategy for the future.

We will be taking some time away from the Club to consider our options and we will make no further comment until we have come to a conclusion.”

Given his option had been categorically stated previously – give me what I want or I’m going – my money is on him sitting tight, possibly under the guise of ‘not being able to find a buyer’, and then hoping all this blows over. But hey, what do I know – I’m just the numpty on the terrace.

Could Flamingos borrow from Tigers – with or without Dr Allam ?

Getting back to shirt sponsorship, sad news reaches me that the iconic association between Rainham Steel and Scunthorpe United has finally come to an end. As comedian Dave Gorman once said (or words to eh effect of): you can tell a true football fan by saying two words: Rainham Steel. Then watch for the reaction – it’ll either be glazed confusion or the utterance of the name Scunthorpe United.

Whilst I can’t knock them for giving over their shirt to a charitable cause – the battle against Prostate Cancer – it still marks the end of an era as recognisable as Brentford and KLM or Arsenal and JVC.

And finally, just as Brentford have changed their sponsor to Matchbook.com, Bury have changed theirs too. Given everything that happened at Griffin Park last campaign, how wonderful if Matthew Benham had, somehow, been able to negotiate a deal with the Shakers’ new partner.

Just think of the reaction if we’d had this across the red and white stripes.

Football truly is a village

Nick Bruzon

Was this the day’s most unexpected result?

With Brentford and Middlesbrough finishing just after 2pm, there was plenty of time to discuss the match with the travelling fans aswell as watching the other results roll in from the warmth of The Griffin. In particular was the game at Crawley Town where high flying Preston North End were the visitors. The specific interest being generated by Manish letting the cat out of the bag the day before to reveal that aswell as Preston, none other than Clem would also be travelling to Crawley.

To read the rest of this article, season 2014/15 is now available to download onto Kindle (and other electronic reading device) in full. Containing additional material and even some (poor) editing, you can get it here for less than the cost of a Griffin Park matchday programme or Balti Pie.

Thanks for reading and all your comments over the course of the season. For now, I need to make more space on the site for any follow up. However, ‘close season’ will continue in full, further on.

Clem’s interview budget is a lot less than Parky’s

Ifs, buts, maybes, favours and Championship excitement.

What a Championship week this is shaping up to be. Saturday’s win saw Brentford become the last team in our league to keep a 100% record for January whilst the FA Cup saw famous victories for our promotion rivals Derby County and Middlesbrough against Chesterfield and Manchester City respectively.

Then, last night, we had the FA Cup draw with Derby given an eminently winnable tie at home to Reading whilst Middlesbrough have the tantalising prospect of being able to test themselves at Arsenal’s library. Aside from the draw giving these two Championship teams an excellent chance of progression to the quarter finals (or round of 8 as FIFA would probably call it) , there is huge impact on Brentford, too, starting tonight.

To read the rest of this article, season 2014/15 is now available to download onto Kindle (and other electronic reading device) in full. Containing additional material and even some (poor) editing, you can get it here for less than the cost of a Griffin Park matchday programme or Balti Pie.

Thanks for reading and all your comments over the course of the season. For now, I need to make more space on the site for any follow up. However, ‘close season’ will continue in full, further on.

The phrase a Brentford fan would never have said last season….

Having spent the vast majority of last season (the nailbiter against Rotherham United aside) hoping that our main promotion rivals, Wolves, would drop points each time they played, their victory over Fulham last night means I need to say, “Thank you Wolves. Great result”.

It is a result that, whilst seeing Wolves overtake The Bees for now, leaves Fulham staring up at everybody barring Blackpool. Just to put that into perspective, they now have a record worse than that of serial jinx, Clem, from the Football League Show.

To read the rest of this article, season 2014/15 is now available to download onto Kindle (and other electronic reading device) in full. Containing additional material and even some (poor) editing, you can get it here for less than the cost of a Griffin Park matchday programme or Balti Pie.

 Thanks for reading and all your comments over the course of the season. For now, I need to make more space on the site for any follow up. However, ‘close season’ will continue in full, further along.

How farce became fantasy. Fulham provide the best opposition possible

Brentford fans were celebrating like….. etc etc etc last night. With the draw for the Capital One Cup having been made, the likes of Manchester United visiting MK Dons or Newcastle at Gillingham would seem the obvious ‘TV’ ties. However, it is the arrival of Fulham at Griffin Park that has to be the most atmospheric and anticipated of the second round.

I’m sure the good people at Sky will go for Manchester United – if only because last season’s campaign of self destruct has seen them enter the competition at this stage for the first time in 19 seasons. They’re welcome to it – I’ll be at Griffin Park regardless.

To read the rest of this article, season 2014/15 is now available to download onto Kindle (and other electronic reading device) in full. Containing additional material and even some (poor) editing, you can get it here for less than the cost of a Griffin Park matchday programme or Balti Pie.

 Thanks for reading and all your comments over the course of the season. For now, I need to make more space on the site for any follow up. However, ‘close season’ will continue in full, further along.

Celebrating like they’ve won the (first round of the) cup

On a night of cup shocks that saw Wigan Athletic lose 2-1 to Burton (stop sniggering at the back) and Crawley beat Ipswich Town 1-0, it was still Brentford that dominated the headlines – despite triumphing against Dagenham and Redbridge.

Our 18 goal Capital One Cup thriller (12 in open play and a further 6 on penalties) saw Brentford go through 4-2 on spot kicks after a surreal 6-6 draw. It was a game that equaled the competition’s previous ‘goals scored’ record (Reading 5 Arsenal 7 set in 2012).

To read the rest of this article, season 2014/15 is now available to download onto Kindle (and other electronic reading device) in full. Containing additional material and even some (poor) editing, you can get it here for less than the cost of a Griffin Park matchday programme or Balti Pie.

 Thanks for reading and all your comments over the course of the season. For now, I need to make more space on the site for any follow up. However, ‘close season’ will continue in full, further along.

Who will wake up happy on Wednesday?

One, non Brentford, subject close to my heart this season has been the ongoing effort to thwart Hull City owner Doctor Assem Allam in his attempt to rebrand the club as Hull Tigers. There were more developments on that yesterday which we’ll look at shortly but, of course, there’s only one place to start today – Griffin Park, with Crawley Town due to visit.

There can’t be too many people unaware of the significance of a win tonight.

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.

Points, pressure or the other ‘p’ word?

Brentford, Wolves, Leyton Orient and, of course, Rotherham are all in League One action this evening as the campaign continues its relentless journey towards P46, with the promotion slots still nowhere near being confirmed.

Only ten games remain (for us) and everybody is talking up fantasy points totals needed to ‘secure’ promotion. Even after the victory over Coventry on Saturday, Mark Warburton told the Football League Show – “You’re going to need at least 95 points to guarantee promotion. The boys are very clear on that. We have our own private target which is private”

So with Brentford on 79 already, those 16 that Mark has ‘publically’ acknowledged that he needs equate to five wins and a draw from the last ten games. This allows for a possible four defeats for a team who have only lost five all season (and four of those by October of last year).

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.

Are points in the bag better than games in hand?

Brentford fans must feel like they are dreaming this morning after Wolves made it one point from the last six following last night’s shock defeat at Crawley. It was a result that few saw coming (myself included) and, following our own win over Leyton Orient on Saturday, has lifted spirits even further.

The proverbial ‘favour from other teams’ is all well and good but don’t forget that, as it stands, Wolves are still top of the table. That’s a fact. They are a point clear (effectively two with their gargantuan goal difference) and so still the team in the box seat.

Brentford, of course, have the ultimate destiny back in our own hands but Wolves have the points advantage. The two clichés in football I probably find have some actual resonance are, firstly, ‘The League is a marathon not a sprint’ (see Bournemouth last season) but also ‘Points in the bag are better than games in hand’.

Having to play that ‘one off’ game can bring its own pressures and this was no better illustrated than last night. The psychological advantage of getting a win when your rivals aren’t playing is immense – if you can get it right. Hand in hand with that goes the extra pressure of knowing what said win will do – as was illustrated last night with the game effectively turned into a mini cup final.

Wolves manager Kenny Jackett gave a very honest press conference afterwards, saying that the game “passed us by and that is a big frustration, particularly when it is one of the games that we have in hand” (perhaps Russell Slade should take note on how to speak to the media after a defeat).

As big a frustration for me, as a Brentford fan, was trying to keep track with the game. Although ‘Beesplayer’ does give access to every commentary (a very handy function, IF it works) mine seemed locked on the Charlton match. So, instead, I was stuck with the BBC ‘live text’ updates on their 21^st century videprinter.

Its not an easy way to watch a game due to the torturous update speeds and generic descriptions as to the action.  Last night’s game seemed to consist of efforts from 35 yards but were these the sort of ‘fizzing pile-drivers to test a goalkeeper’, Adam Forshaw style? Or were they hopeless punts from distance that had less chance of going in than a Miguel Llera set piece?

If anything, he hit it too well….or did he??

Watching a game on the BBC is a great way of knowing what is happening, if you are a fan of factual football. However, as a way of getting that genuine ‘gut feel’ as to who is on top and how things might turn out, then it is about as much help as Robert Madley.

Still, even I couldn’t fail but be moved to excitement by what happened just after the mid-way point of the first half. It began, ironically when you consider how many games Crawley have lost to the weather, raining goals.

Then it stopped. And the torture of waiting began.

But…. We all know the final score. Wolves remain top and, although the bookies still make them favourites for the title and promotion, Brentford have control back.

Coventry on Saturday will not be an easy task whilst I have no doubt that League One will throw up more than a few surprises before the season ends.

I’ll happily accept any gift from another team but, ultimately, it counts for nothing if we can’t do it ourselves. Fortunately, I have every confidence we will.

Wait 24 minutes for a goal, then three come along at once