Can Bees beat Slade to Christmas number one?

Brentford travel to Cardiff City today knowing that a win and the usually unreliable ‘other results going in our favour’ could see us joint top of the Championship table on Christmas day. It is a game most fans have been looking forward to for months and, moreso, because it gives us a chance to renew acquaintances with Russell Slade.

To read the rest of this article, season 2014/15 is now available to download onto Kindle (and other electronic reading device) in full. Containing additional material and even some (poor) editing, you can get it here for less than the cost of a Griffin Park matchday programme or Balti Pie.

 Thanks for reading and all your comments over the course of the season. For now, I need to make more space on the site for any follow up. However, ‘close season’ will continue in full, further along.

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Brentford wrestling Manchester City and Newcastle for a BBC mention

Manchester City lose at home to Barcelona thanks to an ‘iffy’ penalty. Leyton Orient return to the promotion places in League one (although seem to have played all of Crawley’s games in hand for them). Hey, I’ve even seen that World Wrestling Entertainment supremo Vince McMahon is, supposedly, interested in buying Newcastle United from Mike Ashley.

Those, just a sample of the football related stories to be found on the BBC, Evening Standard and other news related websites last night. Given the theatrical nature and hammy challenges in the top flight, perhaps McMahon would be naturally at home in charge of a Premiership football club. However, I hear enough about soap operas at work without wanting to read more on them when I get home.

Besides, there was bigger news out there yesterday. I’m not naïve enough to expect it to be headline grabbing but surely it would be up there, somewhere?

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.

Brentford clean up Staines with ‘massive’ win

What do you say about that?

It was less cup ‘romance’ and more  ‘sexy football’ of the sort not seen at Griffin Park for some time. Listening to Billy Reeves last week, he had praised the footballing ability of this team as ‘the best in the division’ when up against opponents who also tried to play rather than park the proverbial bus. And that’s what both sides did yesterday as Brentford ended up putting five goals past Marcus Gayle’s Staines Town in the FA Cup first round.

It was a cracking cup-tie played in a great atmosphere but the socreline only tells half the story. Before the game had even kicked off, chants of “Marcus, Marcus give us a wave” echoed around the Ealing Road terrace. “Just not with that”, quipped one terrace wag.

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.

Is this the oddest kit ever? (and the Buzzette prizewinner is named)

The next time you find yourself getting upset by the lack of stripes on the back of the Brentford shirt then spare a thought for supporters of Rio De Janeiro based football team, Madureira.

Up until now, Spanish team La Hoya Lorca were my out and out contenders for the most bizarre kit of the season, with their ‘away ‘effort based on the agricultural heritage of the team’s locality. So much so that the entire ensemble has been designed to look like a stick of broccoli, even having an image of the vegetable imprinted into the top. It was a beautiful reminder of that moment back in the early 1990’s when the marketing men up at Hull City decided to employ similar logic – “Our nickname is ‘The Tigers’, why not make a shirt covered in tiger stripes?”

Broccoli and Tiger stripes. Odd inspiration, until now….

But move over La Hoya, there’s a new player in town. Brazilian third division team Madureira have just released a special kit commemorating the 50^th anniversary of the club’s trip to Cuba. And what better way to do this than by incorporating an image of Che Guevara into the shirt? Who needs big cats or root vegetables when you have a Communist revolutionary? It gets better, though. In the case of the goalkeeper’s kit, they’ve taken things a step further by simply replicating the Cuban flag.  It all makes David Button’s lurid green outfit seem rather tame in comparison and I want one!

So if anybody is heading over to Rio for the World Cup next summer then why not keep your eyes peeled for an unusual souvenir. Brentford have already placed the ‘George Cross’ into the 2005-05 home shirt so who knows if we could go one better next time out…?

David Button could be sweating on the arrival of the 2014-15 Adidas goalkeeper shirt

Getting back to matters TW8, the results of the most recent ‘Last Word Caption Competition’ have been announced. Special guest judge Natalie Sawyer has revealed her favourite caption for the picture of Sir Alex Ferguson and Farid El Alagui doing…well, I don’t know what.

Natalie told me, “It’s a toughie but I think I’m going for Roger Greenaway’s (sheffbee) effort, which has Farid saying:  “OK Sir Alex. Best of three, but I still say you’ve got more chance of starting Saturday than I have.”

Congratulations Roger. I’ll be in touch to arrange delivery of your prize – a Buzzette mug – shortly. All being well there’ll be another competition before Christmas. If you’d like to see the best of the printable suggestions (Simon Catlin, I’m looking at you in particular….) then you can do so here.

“OK Sir Alex. Best of three, but I still say you’ve got more chance of starting Saturday than I have.”

Otherwise it simply remains to say, bring on Saturday and the F.A. Cup first round.

My feelings on the tie and, of course, the return of Marcus Gayle have already been well documented this week and so I won’t regurgitate here. That said, fingers are crossed for the right result and, with Uwe suggesting that he’ll be naming a strong side, I’m hoping Brentford will find themselves in the velvet bag for the second round draw.

Be careful what you wish for…..

As Brentford gear up for Saturday’s FA Cup clash with Staines Town, I have a massive case of ‘foot in mouth’.

Last weekend this column featured, amongst other things, a lament for the death of the snowy weather ‘orange ball’, replaced by the new Mitre high viz yellow creation. It was another nail in the coffin of footballing tradition, so I thought.

However the FA Cup, that bastion of footballing romance, has ridden to the rescue. Kind of.

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.

Marcus Gayle – “It’s like going home to see your Auntie and Uncle”

I love the early rounds of the FA Cup.

As Brentford prepare for this Saturday’s game with Staines Town  – the battle of Middlesex as some have dubbed it – everyone is getting excited. Primarily because winning at the weekend takes us that bit closer to a potential tie with the Premiership ‘big boys’ in the third round.

Youngsters all over the country (and me) are raiding the kitchen cupboard for the roll of tin-foil to make that FA Cup staple – the Heath-Robinson style home made replica trophy.

The home made FA Cup – Bacofoil share process are sure to surge in January

TV producers are already preparing their lists of the non-league player’s ‘day time jobs’ – A bonus point for every time you hear, ‘In the day he’s a ….plumber, milkman, postman, electrician.

And local journalists are looking for those tenuous connections between former professionals now plying their trade in the lower leagues as players or, equally, those with a link to the club they are now playing against.

It won’t take Sherlock Holmes to figure out the man of the moment on Saturday. You’d have to be living on the moon not to realise that the Staines Town manager is none other than former Bee Marcus Gayle. Over the course of his two spells in the Bee’s first team, spanning the eighteen years from 1988 to 2006, Marcus represented the club in three separate play off semi finals and has a 91/92 Champion’s medal in his collection.

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.

Football’s greatest cup competition – and also the F.A. Cup

Firstly, the FA Cup.

I love the draw for the first round. Its one of those rare moments where I find myself riveted to ITV football coverage. Even though Mark Pougatch (a man who through no fault of his own) has sadly been allowed to oust the great Jim Rosenthal from behind the draw-master’s rostrum, it is still captivating stuff.  The answers to all those questions you had been wondering are revealed.

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.