Nice work PG as Norris chucks Bees

And relax. After a two day break the World Cup is back tonight. Fortunately, there has been plenty to keep us occupied in the last day or so – and not just at Brentford but everywhere else from Gibraltar to Florida and beyond.

Starting with the Bees, the big news for me was not the announcement of our home friendlies against Nice and Espanyol. That said, these are both very exciting fixtures against teams in their domestic top flights and are sure to be a stern test for Brentford. I’d imagine there’ll be big crowds at each (let’s hope the ticketing arrangements are done differently to the Celtic affair) whilst I’m particularly intrigued by the French visit.

Nice’s goalkeer is David Ospina who, of course, is currently plying his trade in the World Cup for Colombia andis due to play this evening against Brazil. It will be very interesting to see how he fares against Brazil international striker Neymar and then compare this to the performance of Northern Ireland International Will Grigg. I’m banking our man will score more than the, so called, “poster boy of Brazilian football” (© everywhere) .

Neither was it the announcement that Luke Norris has turned down a contract offer at Griffin Park and, instead, chosen to join the home for retired Bees (not Wycombe Wanderers) at Gillingham. Good luck with that, Luke.

It’s a shame he’s chosen to leave as, one would have thought, the challenge of breaking into a Championship side would have been a huge lure. However, I’m sure he has his reasons. For us, it will be interesting to see what happens next with Brentford’s dwindling attacking options.

For me, though, THE news was something I’d hoped for in the previous article – the return of Peter Gilham’s tour diary. You can find this, here, on the official site as PG keeps us up to speed with the latest news from our training camp in Florida. I won’t ruin the surprise, suffice to say that I’ve learnt a fascinating fact about footballer’s ‘flight socks’.

Coming soon to a bookshop near you?

 

Top stuff, Peter. I’m glad it’s back and I’ll be staying glued. Keep up the great work.

Away from Griffin Park, it is incredible to think that despite ‘pre-season’ barely underway and the World Cup only at quarter final stage (or, ‘the round of 8’ as FIFA would probably call it), qualifying for European competition has already begun.

Last night saw former Bees Shaleum Logan and Niall McGinn both on the score sheet as Aberdeen beat Daugava Riga 5-0 in the Europa League qualifying rounds.

However, this was a mere appetiser for the main European story and it is here I must apologise to Lincoln. Not City, now of the Conference Premier, but Red Imps, the champions of the Gibraltar Premier Division.

Regular readers will know of my Gibraltarian heritage and fascination with all things ‘Team 54’ (being the name by which our national side became known as they, finally, became UEFA’s newest members in May 2013). It received several columns over the course of last season and, indeed, I’m hoping to travel to Germany this November to see them in UEFA qualifying action.

However, Wednesday night saw the Lincoln Red Imps become the first Gibraltarian team to begin a Champion’s League qualifying campaign where, despite taking the lead, they were eventually held 1-1 at home by HB Torshavn of the Faroe Islands.

Whatever the result, this was an event of huge footballing significance and so I apologise for not mentioning this yesterday. Well done Lincoln – now finish the job on the return leg. The lure of a tie with Partizan Belgrade awaits the winners!

Similar congratulations to College Europa, for an equally historic moment last night. Despite going down 0-3 in Liechenstein to FC Vaduz, they’ll be sure a big crowd as the Europa League makes it’s debut in Gib for the return leg.

Who knows where this will all lead but I’m already looking forward to that moment in a few years time where Peter Gilham’s tour diary comes from a Champion’s League qualifier from ‘The Rock’.

Stranger things have happened……

‘Celebrating like they’d won the FA Cup…..’ (The story of Brentford’s season 2013/14 and a smattering of ‘Team 54’ ) – amongst other things – is now available as a digital book. Featuring the best of the not so bad columns from the last ten months, and some new content, you can download it here for your kindle / digital device.

 

Farewell to Luke ‘Chuck’ Norris – man of ‘action’

The A-Z of Brentford – October 2013

As Brentford reach the end of October on a high and prepare to face Crawley Town at the weekend, it’s time to round up the best and worst of what happened over the month in another A-Z. Warning: includes some tenuous links.

A – Ashton Gate. This win at the home of Bristol City, our second successive victory in the league, propelled the Bees to seventh place in the table (despite Uwe’s brief aspiration for the Griffin Park support to be more like theirs). And better was to come.

B – Buzzette. ‘The Last Word’ launched another caption competition to win a Buzzette mug. Being judged by Natalie Sawyer, the best of the (printable) entries received so far are on line and you can still enter here if you are here quick.

C – Colchester United. A superlative final twenty minutes against the U’s, following a frustrating earlier period in which we went a goal down, saw Brentford cruise to a Clayton Donaldson inspired 3-1 victory.

D – Dallas, Stuart. Went on loan to Northampton and scored from the bench (not literally) on his debut. Now has two goals from his first three games for the Cobblers.

E – England ‘band’. THE most irritating thing in football. A reminder was received mid-month, if ever one was needed, that musical instruments should never be allowed into Brentford games. Hurrah for the Poland fans who finally drowned them out as we qualified for the world cup 2014.

F – Flares. The firey things, not the über -cool 70’s trouser. The 14 year old numpty who brought one into the Colchester game was subsequently arrested, banned from Griffin Park and was due to attend youth court at the end of the month. It really isn’t big, clever or injecting any sort of ‘Continental, colourful atmosphere’. Don’t do it, kids.

G – George (Saville) curled home a magnificent shot to put Brentford into the lead against Colchester. A contender for goal of the season, alongside Adam Forshaw against Sheffield United and Shay up at Port Vale.

H – Harris, Kadeem. My word, doesn’t Kadeem Harris look tasty? Cardiff City’s latest attempt to say “sorry we nicked your goalkeeper, even though we aren’t playing him’” looks like the proverbial ‘wing wizard’ that the Bees have been crying out for at times. The loan signing deservedly scored, on his debut.

I – Inquisition. Nobody expects the Stevenage Inquisition. Certainly not Billy Reeves and the rest of the press, as Uwe kept them all waiting whilst he ‘had a chat’ with the team after the Stevenage game. Whatever they discussed certainly seems to have worked. Three successive wins followed.

Nobody expects the Stevenage Inquisition

J – Joao Carlos (Teixera). Returned to Liverpool after 28 days of a loan spell that saw him barely register on the Griffin Park radar. An unusual piece of business from start to finish, it will be very interesting to see if, longer term, the Portuguese U-20 was our biggest missed opportunity in years or another wunderkind who fizzles away.

K – Kick it out. The campaign for ‘tackling exclusion’ in football had a promotional day this month with everybody from players to mascots and even Buzzette (below) getting involved. You can read more about ‘Kick it out’, here.

Buzzette shows her support for the ‘Kick it out’ campaign

L – Lee, Richard. Was handed back the gloves against Bristol City and made it three wins from his four appearances this season. Followed this up by giving an exclusive, and very open, interview to ‘The Last Word’.

M – Marcello (Trotta). Off the mark against Colchester United and then bagged the winner against Shrewsbury Town. Let’s hope the second chapter of the Trotta-Brentford story has a happier conclusion for the team.

N – Norris, Luke. Déjà vu? Luke Norris went on loan to Northampton and scored, on his debut. He’s gone one better than Stuart, though, and now has three goals from his first three games for the Cobblers.

O – The O’s. Leyton Orient are top of the table, as it stands, but the wining run has been stopped and their lead over Brentford is now down to 11 points.

P – Peterborough. The Posh (about as posh as allegedly Posh Spice ie not very) were 2-1 home winners in the JPT. I didn’t want to go to Wembley, anyway. Dreadful place.

Q – ‘Queuing up to get out’. Mark Burridge’s stirring description of the Bristol City fans as Clayton made it 2-0. Less a fire drill, more a full scale evacuation.

R – Rotherham. The fine win at Coventry/Northampton which closed September was immediately followed by a lacklustre home reverse to the Millers. Move along please, nothing to see. We won’t play this badly again. Ahh, hang on…

S – Stevenage. The less said about this the better. Out of the blocks like a greyhound following the Rotherham ‘display’, Clayton’s early goal was nullified by David Button’s questionable attempt to impersonate Johan Cruyff. Made Les Dennis’s take on ‘Mavis Riley’ look Oscar winning in comparison. A 2-1 defeat ensued.

T – Tabb, Jay. The Ipswich Town wide-man and ever-popular former Bee spoke to ‘The Last Word’ earlier this month about his career since leaving TW8 and his time at Griffin Park aswell as giving his thoughts on Brentford’s season so far.

U – Up. The direction Brentford are heading. Finished the month in 5th place after beginning it mid-table.

V – Venta, Javi. Had his contract terminated by mutual consent for personal reasons at the beginning of the month. A brave signing and a shame we never got to see Javi’s full potential. The flip side is the emergence of Allan McCormack in the cover right-back role. With three wins from three, could this be the tactical master-stroke of the season?

W – (The) Who. The match-day programme went all ‘Smash hits’ with an article about popular music’s ageing rockers. Bob Booker is a fan, apparently.

X – eXit music (sorry). Despite fine wins against Colchester and Shrewsbury, aswell as the loss to Rotherham, Griffin Park music lovers are still being tormented with those two ‘walk out music’ staples: ‘Celebrate’ by Kool and the gang, for three points, or the horror that is ‘Guaglione’ for a win/draw. Please Big Bee Radio. I’m begging you, change the record….

 Y – Yellow Cards. Even allowing for the appearance of Keith Stroud at Griffin Park for the final game of the month, only five bookings were made in our five league games over the period. And the one offered by Stroud seemed particularly innocuous.

Z – Zombie films, tenuous reference to. The month started in disappointing form with that defeat to Rotherham on October 5th. How things change and our next League game, 28 days later (I did say it was tenuous), sees Brentford in fifth place as they prepare to line up against Crawley Town.

What a change in the 28 days between the Rotherham game and the impending Crawley fixture