If it worked for Tony, could it work for Bob ?

With the season just a few days away, there was good news for Brentford fans yesterday c/o new club sponsors 888sport. Free coach travel to the likes of Aston Villa, Derby County and Bristol City will be the order of the day. There was equally good news for those with an interest in the Bees kit (please, stay with me) as they also released a video “showcasing the Club’s unsung hero, Bob Oteng, the First Team Kitman”

“Bob is the big dog. He’s probably the most revered, the most celebrated  kit man probably not only in English football, probably European football, probably touching across America.” They aren’t my words, although I’d agree with them, but those of club masseur, Chris Domoney. And with them, the tone for the short film is set.

There can’t be many who haven’t seen it yet but , should you be in the dark, then it’s available below.

Sponsors @888sport also released this video showcasing the Club's unsung hero, Bob Oteng, the First Team Kitman:https://t.co/eRU0qCP24V

— Brentford FC (@BrentfordFC) August 2, 2016

Whilst Chris goes on to make the (surely) tongue in cheek comment that , “There is an annual Bob festival in Colombia where once a year people dress up in Bob the kit man masks…” it did get me thinking about away trips. And I’m not alone.

Bees Player commentator par-excellence Mark Burridge took to Twitter to suggest,  “How about an away game with @ganodecafe10 ‘ face masks’ @Beesotted – you guys are good at this stuff! “. A legend amongst Brentford fans and anything but unsung (at least, in TW8, where his BBGiveaway has fans gripped every weekend) what a way to further add to his legendary status? Mark, Beesotted – over to you. Just name the date.

If this was to happen, it wouldn’t be the first time, either. Amongst the Brentford fans attending Saturday’s Tony Craig testimonial at Millwall were four Tony Craigs. Or, at least, four fans in the aforementioned style of headgear. If it worked for Tony then surely it can work for Bob….

If it worked for Tony, could it work for Bob?

And talking of away games (seamless, just seamless) the club announced what it described as “An unprecedented start” to our relationship with the new chief sponsor. Namely, free away travel to several games this season. With the Aston Villa trip, and the prospect of a new ground, now on a Wednesday night this will certainly take a lot of the pain out of that one for many supporters.

I love the travel aspect of an away trip normally. Frankly, the 90 minutes of football is quite often the least enjoyable aspect of a great day out. But a midweek trip, with holiday time at work nothing but a fleeting memory, means that games late in the calendar year do present more of a logistical challenge. This, before you even look at the cost of train tickets.

So the prospect for a free coach direct from Brentford to Villa Park and back again is an offer that, I am sure, will only be very well received. Thank you.

Full details are on the club site.

Nick Bruzon

From Manchester City fan to Brentford legend

Money can’t necessarily buy you success. Of course, at Brentford having the sort of finances available to the likes of the teams at the top end of the Premier League is just a pipe dream. Yet it made last night’s results all the more interesting as this most captivating of top flight seasons continued. Despite their mega-millions, Manchester City (at mid-table Liverpool) and Arsenal (hosting relegation candidates Swansea) both lost against opposition they’d have been expected, on paper, to breeze past.

The flip side to this is that when you are operating on a reduced budget, unearthing that game changing player is a truly joyful experience. And this is where Brentford come into the equation. The previous column looked at, amongst other things, the FourFourTwo magazine survey on your club’s ‘cult hero’ over the top four divisions.

It is genuinely a fascinating read (my own contribution aside) with the results, being published on-line now showing clubs A-M. Starting with Accrington Stanley, it has so far gone through Brentford, along with the aforementioned Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester City to the point they had, at the time of writing, got as far as Morecambe.

So few of these players are the big money signings making the headlines today but each have their special place amongst the fans. And the reason for mentioing this again was, specifically, the chance to talk a bit more about Brentford. Or, rather, our own nominee – Gary Blissett.

All time cult hero, Gary Blissett

Given the constraints of the Four FourTwo site, somebody like Bliss (not to mention those who ran him close when the question was put out there on Facebook last month) deserved more than the 100-150 words available. So here is the full, unexpurgated version.

Gary Blissett – cult hero

Where do you start when looking for a cult hero? For a team like Brentford, where the trophy cabinet is more an aspiration than anything else, most people outside of TW8 probably know us for the sort of thing that would make TV’s “What happened Next…?” rather than the record books.

Goalkeeper Chic Brodie having his career ended by a runaway dog. Millwall fans throwing a hand grenade onto the pitch (November 1965, for the record). The failed takeover bid by QPR that would have seen Brentford cease to exist and our bitterest rivals move into Griffin Park. Eight play-off defeats out of eight (the least successful of all English teams when reaching football’s ‘final four’).

Then, of course, there was ‘that penalty’ in the final minute of the final game of 2012/13. A winner takes all encounter with promotion rivals Doncaster Rovers.

Only one team could make it to the Championship and, with the scores locked at 0-0, the Bees were awarded a 90th minute spot kick. The subsequent tussle for the ball involving club captain Kevin O’Connor (approaching his 500th game), and Marcello Trotta (on loan from Fulham, of all places) is one as familiar as the Italian’s subsequent effort thudding off the crossbar and, with Bees players prostrate on the ground in despair, our opponents going down the other end where they scored to secure promotion and the title.

That’s how we do things at Griffin Park. Glorious failure being as familiar a taste as the pre-match hot dog. Yet when we do win things, it makes them all the sweeter. Every now and again it happens. And even when we don’t, we still have a lot of fun along the way. Thanks, largely, to those figures you’d label as Cult Heroes.

Big John O’Mara who, in his first season, scored 25 goals in 40 games. Centre back Peter Gelson, who made 471 appearances in a Griffin Park career that stretched from 1960 to 1975. The legendary Jim Towers and George Francis aka The Terrible Twins. Playing together for most of the 1950s, they still remain (respectively) the club’s first and second highest all time goal scorers.

Hard as nails players such as Terry Hurlock, Terry Evans and Martin Grainger.

Long serving players Jamie Bates and Kevin O’Connor.

The skilful wing wizards like Andy Sinton and Neil Smillie.

Those who just seemed to exude personality and had the crowd eating out of their hand – Allan Cockram, Lloyd Owusu and Marcus Gayle (just don’t sing that song near your granny).

Modern day heroes including Jota – the last minute goal being his own personal calling card. Toumani Diagouraga – “Toumani scores, we’re on the pitch” went the Ealing Road. He’d last done it in March 2013 and we had to sit through another 111 games without him troubling the scorers before he was sold to Leeds at the end of January. Less than 40 minutes into his full debut….

Or how about Sam Saunders? The perma-tanned wing wizard (and former tube worker) so beloved of fans that most would allow him to ‘have relations’ with their wives, if the terrace chant is to be believed.

But when it comes down to it, there can be only one winner. The moustachioed legend that is Gary Blissett. aka ‘Bliss’.

79 goals from 223 league appearances (105 from 291 total) in a 6 year career from 1987-1993 don’t even tell half the story. His brace against boyhood heroes Manchester City in the 1988-89 FA Cup fourth round sent Griffin Park into meltdown as the Bees earned a 3-1 passage into the fifth round. There, Bliss repeated the feat as his late pair at Blackburn Rovers helped Brentford to a deserved 2-0 win. Sadly it wasn’t to be in an Anfield quarter final as the Bees bowed out despite giving all-conquering Liverpool (kids, ask your dads) an almighty scare.

Bliss does the business against his beloved Manchester City

His defining goal was probably the final game of the 91/92 season. With the Bees having won the previous five on the spin, including a 4-0 demolition of Fulham, we travelled to Peterborough knowing a win and some good fortune could make the impossible, possible.

Bliss was the man who popped up with a first half header as we then sat through an awful lot of ‘squeaky bum time’ for a famous 1-0 win. With other results going our way, including a shock defeat for a Birmingham City side that Saint & Greavsie had earlier congratulated on TV for winning the League, we snuck up the blind side and became Champions. Sometimes, it happens.

Gary was an ever present the following season as, despite the sale of strike partner Dean Holdsworth, his goals almost kept us in English football’s second tier.

But there was more to Gary than short shorts, a luxuriant ‘tache and goals, goals, goals.

A wannabe goalkeeper, he was the man who donned the gloves during a Championship game with Southend United after injury, and no spare on the bench, meant we got to enjoy that wonderful moment where an outfield player goes between the posts. Bliss promptly ignored every piece of advice being shouted to him by youth ‘keeper Ashley Bayes and kept a clean sheet.

But it was his red card at Craven Cottage after what we will politely call a ‘coming together’ with Fulham ‘keeper Jim Stannard that is a moment as popular with Bees’ fans as that goal at Peterborough. Bliss left the field to a standing ovation in a game that showed us the West London derby meant as much to the players as the supporters.

All the money in the bank can’t buy a player like Bliss. The £60,000 we paid Crewe back in 1987, even now, still seems like the bargain of the century.

Like Marcus Gayle and Allan Cockram, Bliss still visits Griffin Park. Catching up with him briefly in the week, he told me, “ I follow every game and after my beloved City Brentford are of course the team I want to see succeed more than any other team or club in the world.

I am sure MB will have Plan B, C, D and more and will one day be playing at The Ethiad IN THE LEAGUE “

For those amongst us feeling slightly down about things on the pitch this year, these are surely words to put your trust in. If a demi-God such as Bliss believes, then that’s all the inspiration we need .

Gary still features in the Junior Bees Top Trumps (style game)

Nick Bruzon

Sheer Bliss for Scott

It’s all about the teams south of the river today. With Brentford due to host Charlton Athletic on Saturday, Peter Gilham has been in touch with several supporter groups in regards to a special tribute in that game. Yesterday, meanwhile, Crystal Palace were the visitors for a development squad game that was noteworthy for the long awaited return of striker Scott Hogan. And we have news of a Brentford legend….

But we can only start with Scott Hogan. Nobody needs any reminding of the 18 months he has had on the sidelines, following the horrendous injury (and subsequent recurrence) suffered against Rotherham United early last season. Yet, finally, after what must have seen an interminable wait for the player, he was back in competitive action as Crystal Palace came to town.

And in a script writer’s dream, it took just 7(seven) minutes for Scott to show the Griffin Park faithful what they’ve been missing out on with the striker putting away the opening goal in a game that would eventually finish 2-2. Lasting an hour, Scott has been full of praise for the club’s medical staff and spoke, at length, on the clubsite afterwards.

Scott was clearly chuffed, publishing this picture afterwards

Fans were, rightly , ecstatic. Primarily it was just a general outpouring of good will and good vibes all over social media. Nobody wants to see any player go through what Scott has done and so to see him come out the other side of this in such a positive frame of mind has been truly inspiring.

“It’s like a new signing” one New Road observer would later note whilst I saw a comment on facebook to say that the first team would be the ideal place to recover his fitness, adding “He can’t do any worse than the three incumbents currently vying for the position of lowest scoring striker in a season”.

A harsh observation or a fair one? Regardless, let’s not pin all our hopes on one man’s shoulders. The enthusiasm is clearly there but full match fitness will likely take a bit longer to come back. That said, just seeing Scott on the bench is sure to be a huge psychological boost for everbody.

The moment arrives

As for the Charlton game, you may have read about the untimely passing of supporter Dean Langford, who was tragically killed in a road accident last week . Peter Gilham has been in touch with Dean’s father and it has been suggested that maybe a minute’s applause in the 24th minute on Saturday, would be the ideal way to pay our respects to one of our own, no longer with us.

Social Media has been awash with tributes to Dean this week. What better way for supporters to show their own respects than joining in on Saturday.

Finally, Cult heroes. It has long been the topic for debate as to who scoops the ultimate crown. When the BBC ran the survey several years ago, Terry Evans came out on top. Would the winner be any different today?

Well, FourFourTwo magazine have undertaken a club by club poll in their online edition and the results are now in. You can find them here . As for the Bees, those visitors to the Facebook ‘Brentford FC loyal’ page have had an inadvertent hand in helping pick our winner, Gary Blissett.

I was fortunate enough to be asked to represent the club in this one and, whilst my decision would have been Bliss, it was nice to see so many other people with a similar viewpoint when the seemingly innocent question was put out there last month.

Congratulations, Bliss. Scott Hogan couldn’t have a better player to aspire to.

Bliss – a hero to many. Then and now

Nick Bruzon

Sammy’s Christmas Cracker (and Brentford cult hero news)

It was Liverpool manager Bill Shankly who famous declared, ““We beat them four nil — and they were lucky to get nil”.

Perhaps Brentford aren’t, quite, at the level of the Anfield supermen at their prime but they are getting closer each day. Yesterday’s ‘lucky’ recipients of the nil were Preston North End, with the boys from Griffin Park putting them to the sword by three clear goals in a table topping clash that saw the gap to first place in League One shrink to a solitary point.

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.

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.