Could a returning hero seal it today?

Brentford take on Preston North End on Friday, knowing that a win (combined with defeats for Rotherham United at Wolves and Leyton Orient at Crawley) will be enough to see promotion from League One confirmed.

It is a big ask, and moreso because I can’t see any slip ups coming from the O’s or Rotherham. Both those play off teams are still in with a theoretical chance of ‘automatic’ themselves and so will be desperately fighting, like hungry dogs over an empty bucket of KFC, for every point possible.

But whatever they do is irrelevant (our title aspirations aside, of course) as long as Brentford win.

“As long as Brentford win”. It sounds so simple on paper and, in theory it should it be.

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.

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Terry and Farid – could this be the best present yet….?

Back in 2005 the BBC conducted a fans’ survey to find their club’s ‘cult hero’.

If I recall correctly, ‘Football Focus’ would then run a piece each weekend, highlighting several clubs and announcing the respective winners.

A quick trawl of the interweb reveals that the results are still out there and, in the case of Brentford, the winner a very deserving Terry Evans – who secured 47% of the total vote. For the record, Terry Hurlock (28%) and Dean Holdsworth (25%) took second and third place.

I had the pleasure of interviewing Terry back in 2009, where he talked fondly about this honour : “It was probably one of my proudest moments, something like that. Especially compared to some of the people that have pulled on a Brentford shirt. For me to be in that top three was a hell of an achievement. I’ve really got to thank the fans for that, for rating me so highly.”

I also asked Terry whom he would have picked, had he voted? The answer was unequivocally in favour of Mr Hurlock: “Terry! I’d come here as a young professional and he just epitomised it. He was just a leader and I only thought – if I could emulate this fellow. He’d get press for his ruggedness and tough tackling but he could play. Week in, week out, year after year Tel was ripping up trees for Brentford so he’d have been my vote. He was a great player.“

Terry – swapped Bees for Wasps

I’d love the BBC to run this poll again. It’s been almost ten years since the last one and would be a great feature to include as part of the Football League Show. Manish, Leroy, Steve – if you are reading (you aren’t) how about it?

More importantly though, who would get the Brentford vote?

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.