It’s not been a great weekend for football. Personally, I’ve kept the duvet over the head for as long as possible. Brentford left Derby County on the wrong end of a 3-0 scoreline and a somewhat harsh looking red card for Sergi Canos. But it wasn’t just there where pain was felt. Sheffield Wednesday 1 – Birmingham City 3 saw a brace for Jota. Fulham 2 Nottingham Forest 0 saw the Cottagers strengthen their play-off position. QPR 1 Barnsley 0 saw true horror –a home win for the Loftus Road outfit as they climbed higher into mid-table although at least we have the consolation of their remaining 7(seven) points behind The Bees. And then to cap it all, in the game Americans refer to as ‘football’, we have another piss weak entry into the pantheon of lame calendar related puns to annoy us for the next 24 hours. The Something Eagles play the New England Patriots in what is commonly referred to as ‘Superb Owl’ day. Hilarious. Said nobody. First though, proper football.
Derby County 3 Brentford 0 will say the record books. They’ll even show a red card for Sergi Canos. I’ve watched it a few times and still think it’s somewhat dubious. Being polite. A 50-50 ball on a greasy surface for which even County manager Gary Rowett would later say,”If I’m being honest it didn’t look like a blatant sending off, it looked like a dangerous tackle although I’d have to see a really clear view to see whether I thought it was particularly dangerous”. Still, it’s the referee who makes the final decision and his was red card.
Sergi was clearly gutted. His twitter post on the way home said it all whilst giving the local press another ‘story’. Hey kids, don’t worry about reading the player’s social media feed when you’ve got hacks on hand to turn every tweet into a ‘story’. It’s journalism you could do in bed and does obscure the real stories driven by a never ending quest for hits.
The glut of clickbait headlines do make it it somewhat tricky to determine which articles are worth negotiating the subsequent sea of adverts and ‘pop ups’ for. You can’t see the wood for the trees some days. Which one will simply turn out to be a regurgitation of Twitter? What is a managerial interview dissected into one line at a time exclusives? What is something that makes a genuinely intriguing read? Certainly, I’ve given up on the vast majority these days.
We digress. As ever, Sky Sports have the goals and the red card incident. Neither of which support Dean’s view as to us having had the better chances or the County players surrounding the referee at the crucial red card. Certainly, their reaction was no different from ours and along with the aforementioned quotes from Rowett, probably tells you all you need to know about the validity of this one. There’s a full match report on the BBC whilst Brentford ‘official’ have the interview with Dean in full. And if you haven’t read Sergi’s post then his Twitter page is your place.
Sky highlights show Derby players surround the ref as a red card is shown to a devastated Sergi
Still, what’s done is done. Preston are next up, at home on Saturday. Brentford may be slipping away from the play-off pack but to even be up there after a somewhat tricky start to the campaign is still a huge achievement. There’s plenty of time to go still and plenty of fun to be had en-route. I’d rather be where we are than, say, QPR or Birmingham City. As for Sunderland…. The table doesn’t lie and last season’s Premier league outfit are now in serious danger of being next campaign’s League One giant. Accrington Stanley v Sunderland as a league fixture for August. Who’d have thought that a possibility twelve months ago yet there is a very real chance of that happening should current form continue. Give me our position than their plight any day of the week.
That’s me. I’m done. Off to block the words ‘superb’ and ‘owl’ ahead of tonight’s Patriots – Eagles encounter. It’s a pun too far and (almost) as toe-curling as May the fourth’s Star Wars day. Although nothing could get my heckles up as much as that one – at least this has given a cheap excuse to play with photoshop.
As funny as an episode of Mrs Brown’s Boys, set Twitter filters to stun. Or mute. Perhaps a few days of down time will do us all good.
There’s nothing superb about a weak pun
Nick Bruzon
BrentfordFC 