Fulham promoted. And?

The reaction on Twitter to one Brentford fan offering congratulations to Fulham for wining promotion to the top flight last night (albeit, looking as though it was as much a dig at QPR as anything else) was entirely understandable and expected. This most pointless of local rivals. A club who have spent the last five years going up and down more often than the lifts at the Burj Khalifa. For whom their main goal threat is the ultimate flat track bully. Aleksandar Mitrović may have bagged a few in the Championship but seems to become Aleksandar Meerkat when he steps up a level to the Premier League. A place where goalscoring has been anything but ‘simples’.

My initial reaction to the news of their promotion was that classic Partridge shrug.

Having slept on things and reconsidered then its actually all good. Bear with me…

There’s a chance to laugh at neutral stands. Gin bars. Statues of Michael Jackson. Clackers. Foam fingers. Run out music for the warm up. An(other) inevitable relegation. Six points for the Bees. Perhaps even a second column from ‘Fulham fan’ Brian Guest and his Spall 87-88 Bees away shirt. The full story on that one is here. Oh, and did we mention neutral stands?

Brian Guest – Fulham note him as a fan despite the pain inflicted by the Bees

That’s before we get to a local game – the cost of a return ticket from Brentford to Putney sure to save a few pennies from the season long travel budget.

Before we get to reflect on Stuart Dallas scoring ‘that’ goal in ‘that’ 4-1 at the Cottage.

Moments, and sounds, like this make life all the sweeter

To Jota in the last minute. To Neal Maupay doing that amazing thing in the 89th.

To the closest I ever got to winning the Big Bob giveaway – Sam Saunders scoring in the 5th rather than 7th minute (Scott Hogan grabbing our second at that point) in what eventually became the 3-0 at Griffin Park. The game when Tom Field made a shock debut.

Or to the 4-0 HT lead that was the precursor to our eventual promotion from Division Three at Peterborough.

Oh, Jota….

Safe to say that there’s plenty to milk and enjoy about the return of the Fulham game next season. With Brentford still pushing for a top ten finish, securing mathematical safety is the first order of business. That said, I’m still more focussed on another mathematical possibility – a place in Europe. Albeit that relies on the Bees winning those final five games and Manchester United (amongst others) losing the same amount. Although on last night’s showing and their abject display at Everton, nothing would surprise me on that front.

All that’s to come. I’d offer congratulations to Fulham but why? No quarter given. No encouragement needed. Just another league double to dream of.

Fulham.
Absolute joke of a club.
Come on Boro’ pic.twitter.com/wfao22cWGQ

— Nick Bruzon (@NickBruzon) January 17, 2020

Nick Bruzon

The Brentford BMW has a new M as Fulham are flayed. Again.

Well that was just magnificent. It wasn’t the same as being there, let’s not pretend otherwise, but Brentford were nothing short of incredible as they destroyed Fulham at a more atmospheric than usual Craven Cottage on Saturday lunchtime. Benrahma and Marcondes doing their thing in Jota time to send the TV audience wild and silence the home team’s tannoy. Scott Parker was left looking as though he’d caught Alexsander Mitrovic red-handed going through his fridge whilst one can only imagine the scenes that would have played out had we been in the away end for this most incredible of denouements. I believe what the kids would call ‘limbs’. Even Pontus was smiling at full time. Not a typo. His former club, Leeds United, have already been displaced at the top of the table and the gap to our next opponents, West Bromwich Albion, reeled in by two points.

The smile says it all

Imagine choosing not to watch that. What else were you going to do on a Coronavirus Saturday lunchtime? Online shopping? Cleaning the house? Or sit in your social bubbles with a few drinks to see if the impossible might become possible. Could Brentford pick up where we left off in March and keep up the push for ‘automatic’?

Well, a 2-0 win for the Bees means we are now eight points off West Brom and Leeds (albeit Bielsa’s boys have a a game in hand at Cardiff today) with the Baggies due to visit Griffin Park on Friday night under the lights. That one’s going to be huge but let’s not get ahead of ourselves. There’s the small matter of destroying Fulham to talk about first.

Brentford took the game to our hosts from the off. This, despite Thomas Frank confirming that Bryan Mbeumo would be missing out as the individual who had tested positive for Coronavirus. The player has shown no symptoms but is self-isolating at present whilst the rest of the squad had all come back negative on their subsequent tests. Take care Bryan and see you soon. But if his absence might have felt like a blow, it wasn’t impacting the team. Tarique Fosu stepped in and the hairy Bees (Benrahma’s bouff, Dasilva’s beard and Jensen’s top knot – oh dear) went for it.

Both keepers were in good form as the hosts, in the unusual situation of being  roared on…by their p.a. system…. found a way back in to the game. Being honest, David Raya kept us well in it at times whilst they probably had the better of the first half chances. Despite our possession, drive and one close effort from Josh, it was Decordova-Reid who hit the bar whilst Knockaert and Mitrovic both came close. The later even found the back of the net in the second half although was correctly adjudged to have been well offside. The linesman’s flag being lowered with almost slow-motion accuracy to chalk off the rotund striker’s effort.  

And with it, their chance was gone. The arrival of Shandon Baptiste and Emiliano Marcondes breathing new life into Brentford as we kept on pushing. Break followed break until, with the game well into the clock 88th minute, Emiliano played a ball across the box which Benrahma guided home from close in. Yessssss!!! The scream from our house probably loud enough to wake the dead. It was a noise replicated across this part of West London as the Bees moved into a (surely) unassailable position.

No word of a lie, there was calm in our house. This is not the Brentford of old. The Brentford that cock it up late to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Thomas Frank’s brand of football is part Kevin Keegan (minus the meltdown), part confidence and a huge dollop of faith in his players. We kept going. If the ball is up the other end then the opposition can’t score. And sure enough, they couldn’t. Fulham left very much in second place as Marcondes wrapped up the points, and his own man-of-the-match award, late into stoppage time with a cool finish. Not bad for twenty minutes work.

Fulham were broken. Battered. Down and very much out. They retain third place, for now, although have the Bees breathing right down their neck and a trip to Leeds United next up. Either way, something has to give there. With the visit of West Bromwich Albion to Griffin Park taking place the night before, that Elland Road game could turn out to have even more significance than already. Especially if Cardiff City can pull a favour out of the bag today when Bielsa and co resume their own campaign.

I didn’t expect West Brom to drop points yesterday. I mean, Birmingham City? But it happened and that’s a dirty favour we’ll gratefully accept. These early games are going to be critical as teams rediscover there form and fitness. Accept the gifts whilst you can and enjoy our own moment. Beating a team above us in the table, whoever they are, is no small feat. Don’t let the derby nature of the game take away what we achieved. Likewise, Blues at the Hawthorns. No matter how it may feel.

…Our squad is ten times better than yours ever was…

Yet for now it would be trite not to focus on our own performance. A never give up reminder that football is a 90 minute game. Football is a squad game and if you keep going to the very end, rewards can come.

I’d love to have been there. No question. It was a quite amazing finish to a fixture that always brings out the best in Brentford. Everybody from Jota and Stuart Dallas to Neal Maupay and even Brian Guest have written their own particular chapter in the Brentford- Fulham story. To that you can now add Emiliano Marcondes. The BMW found a new M when it mattered.

We can’t celebrate in person but this was the next best thing

I’m desperate to attend on Friday but it’s not going to happen. Sadly. I’m not alone. Instead, it’s another shift in front of the TV and the genuine belief that the Bees will pick up where we left off. Yesterday was such a huge morale boost. Something that was quite evident in our own post-match Zoom chat aswell as from dipping in and out of social media. Wherever you went, there we were celebrating. And why not?

Roll on Friday night. Football Is back. It is very different and it is very echoy. But it also has Brentford winning and foe me, Clive, that alone is cause for celebration. Four derbies this season and four wins. Kings of West London. I’ll take that.

See you Friday. In spirit. 

Nick Bruzon