Will we slip on another potato skin or dodge that lower league bullet ?

It seems like only five minutes ago that Brentford performed those League cup heroics against Hull City and Everton, before narrowly missing out on Round 5 via a last minute equaliser and penalties against Birmingham City at St. Andrews. Infact, it was 2010 and The Bees first XI included the likes of Mickey Spillane, Craig Woodman and Pim Balkestein. Whilst the squad has evolved from that small League One group it would be fair to say that our record in the competition hasn’t been a great one since then. Could Tuesday night’s game in Kingston against AFC Wimbledon see us get back to winning ways?

 

And if you’d like to read more whilst helping the Brentford FC Community Sports Trust …. the rest of this article can now be found in the Kindle e-book Ten Times Better. Brentford FC Season review: 2017/18. Inspired by ‘that’ interview it contains the least bad of these columns in one, handy volume as it looks at our own campaign as well as wider divisional life and the promotion / relegation races.

As a bonus there’s a whole host of new material. New that is, for my pages. Specifically, all the programme articles submitted (both home and away where, if nothing else, you can get the original versions of both Birmingham City and Millwall).

In addition, There Is No Plan B. Brentford FC Season reviews: 2013/14 – 2017/18 takes us all the way back to the start of this latest leg in the journey. That penalty. League One. Harlee Dean was a hero. Jota was something we thought happened to the temperature for one week in July. Alan Judge had joined on loan whilst the Marinus Experiment was something nobody had contemplated. Bringing things bang up to date by the inclusion of this year’s volume alongside the four previously published campaign round ups, it has five seasons in one weighty tome. As weighty as a download can be, that is.

Relive the memories. See how often the same material gets regurgitated. Remind yourself about the likes of Betinho, Martin Fillo, Javi Venta and Marcos Tebar. Certainly, if there’s no Marcos Tea Bar at Lionel Road it will be an opportunity missed.

All proceeds from any sales will go to the Community Sports Trust. For less than the cost of a half / pint respectively, they may help while away some time on the commute. By the pool on holiday. In the bathroom. Who knows? It will certainly do some good for the Trust, whose work has been well documented at Griffin Park but you can read all about it on their site.

And if that wasn’t enough, I’ve been given something very special. A 2017/18 third team shirt with Lewis Macleod’s squad number on the reverse in the EFL typeface. Anyone with half an interest in Bees kits will know that these were never made available in the club shop.  Anyone who has read any of this before will know what a kit nerd yours truly is so when I say this is rare, take that in good faith!

To be in with a chance of owning it, download a copy of either before the end of June 2018 and you’ll go into a draw to win this. Just DM/tweet me (@NickBruzon) a copy of your purchase confirmation mail and I’ll add your name to the list before selecting a random Bees fan to win this on July 1st.

Nick Bruzon

From the ridiculous to the sublime. Did that just happen?

Burton Albion 3 Brentford 5. Let’s just repeat that, for clarity.  Burton Albion 3 Brentford 5.

Now let’s look at the half-time score. Burton Albion 3 Brentford 1 (not a typo).

“The whole of the Smith era summed up in 90 mins”. They aren’t my words but those of regular Last Word correspondent Bernard Quackenbush. In a season where Brentford’s search for consistency has been one of the themes on these pages, BQ seems to have hit the nail on the head. For every Rotherham ‘away’ has been a win at Brighton. For every Wolves ‘home’ has been victory at Nottingham Forest. And now for every first half at Burton has been a second half at Burton.

I can’t comment on the game specifically. I wasn’t there. I should have been. We have a rule in our house that once something is on the calendar, that’s it. It is agreed and set in stone. When I check it even now, there you go. Saturday 18 March and one word. ‘Football’.

Does anybody have any plans for Monday?

But then something happened. A rogue entry appeared on the schedule. Also on Saturday 18 March. And in our family only one person wears the trousers. Without naming names let’s just put it this way – there’s only Pepe 2 behind your’s truly in the pecking order. And he’s a cat.

So my attendance at today’s game has had to go for a Burton. Still, what was the worst that could happen? Indeed, at half-time I was that close to thanking Mrs Bruzon (I mean, Person X).Brentford were on the wrong end of a 3-1 deficit that, from watching the subsequent video highlights on the internet c/o Sky, was as close to a masterclass in how not to defend set pieces as one could expect to see.

Then half time happened. With tweets including the phrase “We go again” already being prepped and the Bees facing an even more ignominious fate than being humped by Burton, that of being overtaken in the table by QPR, there was no way back. Surely?

Yet four goals without reply put the Bees on the brink of brackets and has sent Twitter into meltdown. I have no idea what Dean Smith said in the changing room but credit to him for sticking with the same XI that started the first. They got us into it, could they get us out? The answer being an emphatic “Yes”.

Soccer Saturday on Sky would describe Sergi’s second, that to make it 3-3, as being scored from an impossibly tight angle. Whilst it wasn’t quite a volley akin to Marco Van Basten or Gary Alexander for Crawley against Peterborough (I’m not joking), the angle was as acute as you could expect. More was to follow with who else but Jota adding to braces from Sergi and Lasse Vibe. Albeit in the 86th rather than the last minute. Hey, that’s just being picky.

Jota. Who else. Sky TV capture the moment.

Check out the BBC , Brentford ‘official’ or Beesotted for the match report. Or just watch the Sky highlights. Personally, I can’t wait for the Mark Burridge infused full-fat YouTube clip tomorrow lunchtime.

Brentford. From the ridiculous to the sublime. At times we are infuriating. We’re very much inconsistent. But nobody could deny we aren’t exciting and there’s never a dull moment.  And this one was up with the best of them. Even following from home you could sense something special unfolding. One can only imagine how wonderful to have been there for this one.

Indeed with fans on the way home reporting Sergi Canos, one of the men of the moment, at the railway station and posing for photos with supporters it just tells you all you need to know about our club.

Yes. He really was. Sergi – what a man

With Bristol City next up, who knows what will happen then? You’d need to be Nostradamus to call that one and, frankly, I’ve given up trying.

Well played lads. If ever a reminder were needed that football is a game of two halves then here it was. As official noted at full time….

I can’t top that. A safe journey back to all those fortunate enough to have travelled.

Nick Bruzon

Mind the gap – it’s the League One late show

It really was a case of playing to the final whistle in League One on Saturday.

Nowhere was this better illustrated than at Griffin Park where the Mark Warburton era began much as the Rösler regime ended. Another win for Brentford, another clean sheet and another goal at the death.

This time, the executioner was Jonathan Douglas.

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.