The good, the bad and the ugly. Bees win, Liverpool draw with West Ham and Kingsley is back. A week in football (Europe special).

Brentford got back to winning ways after despatching Burton 2-1 despite the best efforts of referee David Coote. Newcastle United and Brighton traded places at the top of the table, twice, as Dwight Gayle’s hat trick saw him move a further goal ahead of our own brace grabbing Scott Hogan. Nottingham Forest’s derby defeat to, erm, Derby saw the Bees climb an additional place to 15th on Sunday via the medium of goal difference whilst art the bottom it’s as you were. Cardiff City, Wigan Athletic and Rotherham United occupy the relegation spots although the Millers did, at least, have the pleasure of beating QPR. Stop. Sniggering.

That’s the latest Championship action in nutshell. Yet there has been so much more going on in the division and beyond. In the latest edition of our regular, weekly feature we look back at those things you might have missed from the world of social media.

This week it’s a European special although, of course, we start with Brentford. With new co assistant head coach Thomas Frank joining in the week, was the win down to him?

Perhaps. Although captain Harlee Dean was quick to recognise his team mates. How much better to read this sort of thing rather than any ‘going again’?

Before kick off, this faith wasn’t shared by all. Careful, they’ll remember you.

And it wasn’t just the musical choice that was causing some supporters pain.

But in our last game before Christmas, those three points were all that mattered. There was a festive vibe before kick off and one that was matched at half time as supporters crowded a forecourt that remains dominated by that beautiful tree. Great work to all at the club for what really is a wonderful centrepiece.

Hats off to Beesotted for a clip that needs no other words, beyond…..Push Up, Brentford.

Absolute legend.

Mr Push up Brentford.

Pushing up since 1948 #brentfordfc pic.twitter.com/1eMXqpgxkK

— Beesotted Brentford (@Beesotted) December 10, 2016

And as our penultimate Bees related thought, those of you with a yearning for all things Spanish may want to look away now. Please, come back…..

#EibarAlavés + @KingJota = un recuerdo imborrable para los armeros… 🚀

Previa: https://t.co/hxVpuNaw5T https://t.co/3oEbAFvqnx

— LaLiga (@LaLiga) December 11, 2016

From Eibar, further into Europe. In Portugal, Benfica have officially killed football.

In Germany, Manuel Neuer has officially killed fashion.

In the Champions league, Spurs limped into the Europa places whilst Leicester City had a familiar face between the sticks as they went down 5-0 to Porto.

Still, that didn’t stop them humping Manchester City 4-2 on Saturday night. Well done to the Foxes although perhaps City still had their minds on a shocking incident that occurred as they played the dead rubber against Celtic.

North of the border, Celtic may be running away with the title but that doesn’t stop the rest of Scotland having an awful lot more fun. The kings of football Twitter, Inverness Caledonian Thistle, were back and as ever the club remain happy to wade in on any subject.

Meanwhile Kingsley, the unchallenged mascot heavyweight champion of the world, was back. Twice. Oh Buzzette, if only your paths could cross….

 

Back home in the Championship, hapless Fulham were doing what the do best. Being hapless.

Massimo Cellino at Leeds has been found guilty of something again. And banned. Again.

Whilst Norwich City legend Darren Huckerby has hit Twitter with some hime truths.

At Old Trafford, Manchester United did something unheard of in footballing circles. They won a game. Yer prior to kick off, manager Jose Mourinho had been displaying all the seasonal goodwill of Scrooge.

Later on, he went down like he’d been shot. That, or his Peter Crouch robot dance really needs more work.

Liverpool were also in action on Sunday, against West Ham, in a game that was dominated by the goalkeepers.

Although perhaps events prior to kick off had affected both teams. For Liverpool, an opportunity very much missed.

For West Ham, David Gold’s lack of pop culture was apparent to all.

We finish with a double helping of Moose. Ian, that is. He had an old friend in tow on Saturday.

But, as ever, we close with his birthday friend of the week. Which of Ian’s good friends from the world of football did the Talksport DJ wish happy birthday to, via the medium of a Twitter post and picture of them together?

This week: former Bee Les Ferdinand

Nick Bruzon

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Fairplay, Phil Neville (oranges are not the only shirt – for Bees)

It’s official. ITV are in danger of running the BBC close in the World Cup coverage stakes. Monday’s 4-0 demolition of Portugal by Germany (poor Cristiano…. stop sniggering at the back) saw my favourite line trotted out for a second ‘light channel’ 5pm game.

“For those of you just coming in from work, the score is…” appeared just after 6.20pm, in what now seems to be it’s regular slot, after a similar airing for Mexico – Cameroon. As on Friday, I was still coming home at that point but, regardless, remain excited that in these days of over size score graphics some traditions continue.

The other piece of broadcast news was the second weapon in ITV’s armoury – Phil Neville. Whilst universal criticism of the former Manchester United player may have continued after his robotic performance during the England game, he has been man enough to acknowledge his shortcomings.

In a brief, but hilarious, interview on BBC Radio 5 live (which you can hear here) Phil has promised us he’ll “show a little bit more excitement” when he’s back on TV for the next England game.

On pitch yesterday, the BBC continued giving us Doctor Phil’s ‘cure to insomnia’ by broadcasting the Iran – Nigeria game. The one positive for both teams is that they remain unbeaten but a 0-0 draw, in a group containing Argentina and Bosnia-Herzegovina, helps nobody – least of all the viewers who had to struggle through the dullest game of the tournament so far.

The USA rounded things off with three points against Ghana. The opening goal coming before most viewers had taken their seats – the winner after most had gone to bed. It was an exciting game but the Africans must be rueing their profligacy in and around the penalty box.

Back home, Brentford have announced details of Thursday’s shirt launch. You can read the full details on the club website but, suffice to say, we can be there but still catch the England game later in the day. With players, club staff and Bees super fan Natalie Sawyer promised to be in attendance, I think I might try and sneak out of school early to pop along to the 4pm event.

The other news that intrigued me was a comment I saw on Twitter last night, suggesting that in 2013/14 we might have gone for an orange away kit. It won’t take a genius to track that one down but, novelty value aside, it really has got me desperate to find out what next season’s change kit will look like.

News on that one is thinner than Warb’s hairline – the only thing we know being that orange is not an option this time round. Until then, here’s my crude take – featuring obligatory ‘iron on sponsor’ – of what orange could have been….

Could this have been our away shirt? No – but I quite like it

 

More England & Phil fallout as Messi does his thing

With less domestic stories than the North Korean ‘news at ten’, it’s a good thing we’ve got the World Cup to keep us going. Sunday was dominated by fallout from the England game, Lionel Messi ‘doing his thing’ and Honduras being, what we’ll politely call, ‘cynical in the challenge’.

Everybody has an opinion about the England team, with Wayne Rooney’s positional sense being the main talking point. Given the various tabloid scandals to have dogged him in recent years, the last thing I want to be visualising over my cornflakes is Wayne Rooney’s best position.

The other fallout from the England game was further discussion about the robotic stylings of Phil Neville in the BBC commentary booth. I said my piece on this yesterday but note his own subsequent admission that this was the first game he had ever covered.

It’s one way to unite the country, I suppose, with the criticism of the former Manchester United man being universal. I realise that new talent has to start somewhere, but not in the biggest England game since the last biggest England game. Surely this is what the likes of Iran- Nigeria are for?

I hope it works out for Phil. Genuinely. It’s a poor state of affairs when the BBC can produce somebody who makes Andy Townsend seem vaguely relevant.

The Phil Neville panini sticker – a limited run???

Back on the pitch, Sunday highlights included Lionel Messi with a wunder-goal for Argentina in their 2-1 win against Bosnia & Herzegovina. I’ll be honest; I only saw this on the Internet today. Another 11pm match was too much for me on a school night. If you saw it live, then well done. Well worth staying up for and you can catch it here, c/o the BBC.

France beat Honduras with the first legitimate use of goal-line technology. My gut reaction was ‘goal’ after Karim Benzema’s effort went in via Honduran goalkeeper Noel Valladares. Whilst TV seemed to confirm this, not everybody was convinced. Radio 5’s Pat Nevin wasn’t alone in refusing to believe his own eyes and the video.

Pat Nevin – sticking to his guns on the BBC website

For me, I still say ‘goal’ but the French can count themselves luckier to have escaped largely unscathed. Honduras did their very best to take football back to the dark ages in a performance than reminded me of Zaire ’74 or Cameroon against Argentina (foul wise) in Italia ’90.

Hopefully FIFA will ‘have a word’.

Today’s highlight is the Germany – Portugal clash at 5pm. I can’t wait. Pack your brollies – it’s going to be raining goals.

Was this the worst performance ever? Come on England.

Not the football team. I thought England did really well against Italy in their opening World Cup game last night and, to be fair, were unfortunate to come away without at least a point. Indeed, there was enough from Roy’s boys in the opening 15 minutes to excite more than the whole of the ‘no show’ in South Africa 2010 put together.

In a tournament that has been all about goals, goals, goals the England – Italy game delivered more and was anything but the dour, cautious 0-0 this numpty predicted. Ok, we lost but we played well in doing so. With the emphasis being very much about England on the front foot rather than camped in the defensive third, I’m anything but downbeat about our chances of progress.

My disdain is more for Phil Neville. The BBC really have dropped the ball in their team selection at the World Cup. The likes of Lineker, Shearer and Henry are still street ahead of anything ITV have to offer but are they taking it for granted?

Things got off to a bad start on Friday with the Manchester United referencing Rio Ferdinand. He continued name-dropping on Saturday (yawn) but things then hit a real low when we switched to the main game.

Phil Neville, as analyst in the commentary box, seems to have had all the charisma surgically removed from him prior to taking his seat (that is, assuming he had any charisma in the first instance). For a game that kicked off at 11pm, the last thing a tired audience needed were the soporific tones of this human Horlicks. It was like listening to a robot. He really was that monotone.

Just one more needed to complete my sticker album

Ironic, considering we really needed a robot on the pitch. Daniel Sturridge’s fine equaliser saw a celebration that was less Peter Crouch and more seasick scarecrow.

To compound the felony, with both Leighton Baines and Andrea Pirlo having second half set piece efforts in front of goal, Phil couldn’t even give us a, “And this is Saunders territory”.

The BBC still has far too much in the tank to be worried by ITV but their choice of Phil Neville seems a really odd one. His brother, Gary, does a fine job on Sky – I’m the first to admit. Clearly, it doesn’t run in the family.

Or perhaps, with the selection of Rio, the thought is that Manchester United’s fallen stars are the future of football punditry.

I hope not.