Stand by for action. The Championship is finally here !!

This is it, Brentford. Today’s visit of Charlton Athletic finally offers the chance of some catharsis as all those years of ‘coming so close’ since 92/93 (not to mention a couple of relegations) can finally be put to one side.

After falling foul of League restructuring and missing out to Birmingham City in 94/95 – followed by our now standard play-off capitulation.

After the dire play off final of 96/97 agasint Crewe Alexandra at Wembley.

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 start as a double transfer swoop actually happens?

The link between Hull City and Brentford was one I talked about a lot last season. However, with the visit of Charlton Athletic for the Championship opener only 24 hours away it has just became even stronger.

They were lining up to be photographed with the official Brentford signing shirt yesterday as the news was announced that both Tommy Smith (who had been on trial with the Bees for sometime) and Nick Proschwitz from Hull (not so widely predicted) have joined. These much-welcomed signings mean competition up front, where Andre Gray and Scott Hogan were in pole position, has suddenly become very fierce.

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.

We’ve been here before – the top ten of our last Championship campaign

With Charlton Athletic due to visit Brentford on Saturday in our Championship opener I made a somewhat outlandish claim in yesterday’s column as to where I think we’d finish the season. I stand by that and I’d hope history repeats to help this happen – the last time The Bees entertained Charlton at this level saw a 2-0 win for us back on Nov 7th 1992.

That said, I hope there aren’t too many more similarities between the forthcoming campaign and that one, given 1992/93 saw us return to League One (as is) after a solitary season. At times the season was exciting; at others, it offered nothing but the bitterest frustration.

Regular correspondent Bernard Quackenbush asked for ‘my memories’ of this and, whilst somewhat hazy, it did get me thinking. So here are the top five highs and lows from the last time we tried try our luck in English football’s second tier.

The lows:

5: Dean Holdsworth. If Wigan Athletic fans are wondering why Brentford supporters are so upset about the Adam Forshaw talk, this is why.

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.

Premiership, we’re coming for you (and this time it’ll be different)

Wednesday morning and I feel like a kid at Christmas. The Adam Forshaw to Wigan Athletic story has got in the way of what should be the most exciting week in the last 21 years as Brentford prepare to rejoin the Championship. So I’m done with that (Wigan, I mean) – we’ll let the story play out one way or another and, instead, start to focus on the weekend when it all kicks off again with the visit of Charlton Athletic.

Football always has been my game, no question. I love rugby and cricket but this has it all. And as much because of all the chatter, the banter, the build up, the speculation and the anticipation. We have a week of preparing for that moment when everything comes to a head and Buzzette leads the teams out to the pitch.

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.