Ticket details announced. #farce. But there IS another way you might get in….

Monday morning and still grinning like a lunatic. Voice still sounding like the squeaky teenager from The Simpsons. Brentford having delivered the ultimate high in turning a round a two goal deficit against Bournemouth to reach this Saturday’s play off final at Wembley. A day where what happened pre kick-off, post game and off-field was as incredible as what happened on the pitch. You can read about it here if you want. Likewise, huge thanks for all the kind comments. Especially regarding the second column about Woody making his way back to a game. Yet special though it all was, and it was amazing, it has been and gone. Now, Swansea City await in North London.

The Monday after the weekend before

Like us, the Swans are one win away from the Premier League. For Steve Cooper, this most coveted of prizes. Amongst other things, a chance to avenge last season’s semi-final defeat to the Bees. For us….. well, we all know the scoop. We all know the history. We all know what happened last time out in the final. Not to mention the eight attempts prior to that one. Tickets go on sale this lunchtime and if the enormity of the task at hand is now the immediate focus, the fact that we will have less than 4,000 supporters present in a 90,000 stadium has, understandably, got everyone’s back up. Also, I have no doubt, for Swansea who will also be operating under the same, crazed restrictions.

That this game, and the other divisional finals, will be played out in front of just 10,000 seems utter madness. The FA Cup final had 20,000 last week. Likewise, with the authorities prepared to sell us up the river and shift the final elsewhere at the 11th hour to accommodate a relocated  Champions’ League final with a similar sized crowd part of the deal. So don’t give us this “It’ not a test event” gumph. Then we’ve got the Euro’s next month where larger crowds will be in attendance. There is no logical reason to have a crowd reduction this coming weekend. No practical reason why extra supporters can’t be allowed in. Nobody is naive enough to think that a full house is anywhere near feasible given what’s going on at present but, equally, a paltry 10,000 makes no sense in the broader landscape. 

We all know the arguments. We all know the situation. We all know that the bun fight for entry will see thousands of regular season ticket holders disappointed. At any other time, they’d be guaranteed entry. Not now. Not even close to a chance. The club have taken the least bad option available to them an, in line with the Customer Charter, gone for a TAP based threshold once more. Its all they could do. The full details are on the website, along with a hard hitting statement lambasting the situation:

“We at the Club feel it is unjust that only one week ago, more than 20,000 fans were admitted to The FA Cup Final and advanced discussions were taking place for Wembley to host the Champions League final with a similar number of fans attending. We find it incredulous and unjustifiable just two weeks later, the Championship Play-Off Final will be restricted to just half of that number.”

We’re fighting for an extra 750 but, if you want to go, there MAY be another way. BIAS have leapt into action and set up an online change.org petition to have capacity increased. You can see that and sign it here. Supporters DO have a voice. Whether it will be listened to at such short notice is another question but if you don’t ask you don’t get. At the very least, it will help further highlight this ludicrous situation and the contempt football fans are, once again, being held in. Besides, with Boris prepared to jump on to any bandwagon to potentially enhance his image amidst the debacle of the covid crisis, perhaps its not a as futile a gesture as the cynical may suspect. So sign it. Please. HERE. Share it. Pass it to your mates. Send it to other fans. Should any Swansea supporters be reading, this impacts you as much as us.

Saturday will be incredible. Wembley will be rocking. 4,000 supporters took the roof off Lionel Road. Double that, with fans from both clubs, will be next level. But imagine with double even that? There’s no reason not to. One of football’s greatest, most anticipated, weekends deserves as many supporters there as possible. There’s NO genuine reason why this can’t be possible.

See you there. I hope…

Nick Bruzon   

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“It had to be Barnsley, didn’t it.” Not my words. Those of, err, Harry….

If there is one positive to come out of Brentford losing 2-0 at home to Barnsley on Sunday it was when 7 (seven) year old Harry turned to me and said, “Daddy. I want to write a story about this one. The headline is going to be…. ‘Scumbags’.” I’m not sure whether he was talking about us, them or simply the combination of David Coote in the middle and Ian Moose in the press box.  On waking up this morning the desire to tell the tale was still there although, thankfully, the scumbags have been dropped in favour of the above headline. For those not familiar with H and his output, this was the take on our being held at Swansea City…..

Open letter to Steve Cooper at FT from Harry.#BrentfordFC pic.twitter.com/spxqYC1jIN

— Nick Bruzon (@NickBruzon) January 27, 2021

Instead, over to H for his view on proceedings…

It had to be Barnsley, didn’t it?

I watched loads of Tom and Jerry yesterday which was probably better than watching Brentford vs Barnsley because Jerry slapped a frying pan around Tom’s face or the dog Spike would be punching Tom on every part of his body. The football match wasn’t so good. One, because Barnsley were pressing so high to force us to make mistakes. Two, because we weren’t really switched on our passing game. Pinnock has a good head for heading but not so good for when Barnsley try and nutmeg him.

Probably Rico played best for Brentford and Sergi did well but not that. The rest of them had their heads turned on their loved ones because it was Valentine’s day. Pinnock messed up twice to let them have the two goals. Barnsley were just concentrating on the game.

I didn’t really enjoy watching it. A bit but not much and it was pretty frustrating as we are normally on the gas. They did screw up our automatic last season, probably making them think they can beat us again despite how well we tried. I watched the game in the lounge with my mum and dad. My mum got so bored she even went out on a long walk and got some food. I don’t know why as we normally always watch it but that’s not why we lost as they scored both goals before.

I had my lucky shirt on but it wasn’t so much. I think I know why we lost though – my dad’s lucky socks stunk like a skunk’s fart (especially after he uses the bathroom). They barely ever stink. When we were losing a few last season we still kept the same lucky shirt even though my dad insists on changing it. I’ve got four other shirts in my draw, including a training top, so I think I’ll keep this one. Lucky shirts last all season.

Harry Bruzon

Better than Brentford. Yesterday.

Where’s Keith when you need him? Swans try to break our arms with their wings. And their midfield. And their defence.

Look positive. Brentford remain unbeaten in the Championship since late October. A 1-1 draw at Swansea City saw our hosts punch, kick and elbow their way back to second place in the table. Two points ahead of the Bees but with an additional game played. They travel to Rotherham on Saturday. We’ve another showdown with Wycombe Wanderers at Lionel Road. It was a game that we’re all left feeling hard done by after dominating play yet being kicked off the park by Steve Cooper’s unattractive brand of physical and cynical football. Clearly, he’s a fan of that approach and when you get a referee as innocuous as John Brooks was then its understandable why. It was a game crying out for the no-nonsense card waving of Keith Stroud but we were given Ray Biggar 2 . With Josh Dasilva , Vitaly Janelt and Sergi Canos amongst those being particularly brutalised Keith would have stamped it out in a moment. Instead, the only stamping was from a Swans team allowed to haul us off the ball with abandon and despite being, eventually, reduced to ten men still saw Jake Bidwell’s elbow to David Raya go unnoticed as the equaliser drifted in .

Sour grapes? No. Frustration? Yes!! Swansea are a rock solid team with a, generally water tight defence. They’re where they are for good reason. Some fair, some foul. It was a mammoth game for us and we more than matched the home team. Raya rarely troubled as Brentford took the game by the scuff of its neck and drove forward. Unfortunately, Swansea took Brentford by the scruff of our necks and did all possible to kill it. Rico Henry came oh so close in the first half as did Bryan Mbeumo. At one point he and Henrik tripping over each other to head the ball home fand, instead, conspiring to miss. No matter, it would come soon. 

The magical Matthias Jensen opened up the Swansea defence as easily as he would a packet of fish fingers to free Josh in the second half. Surely now. Surely….? Nooooooo. The ‘keeper got in the way as the goal opened up. But eventually the pressure paid. With Swansea finally down to ten men after Kyle Naughton was eventually shown a second yellow card (having previously dodged more bullets than the lovely Debbie McGhee facing a blindfolded Paul Daniels back in the day),  there was Tarique Fosu to head home a Dalsgaard cross in the 74th minute. 

Get in!! Our house erupted. Crisps in the air. Percy Pigs scattered everywhere in a celebration of relief and excitement. A goal and a man up. Dominating the game. This could only go one way. And sure enough, it did. It’s Brentford, innit?

To be fair, this one wasn’t down to us. A free kick given away near there touchline was delivered in to the box by Conor Hourihane. IT WAS a great ball in, to be fair, but should still have been meat and drink to David Raya. Instead, he was surrounded by Swansea players with Jake Bidwell unable to match us by fair means so resorting to foul. His elbow to Raya seen by everybody but Mr Brooks. Amazing. How? We were already screaming at the tv before Hourihane’s delivery was able to continue unchecked into the back of the net. Even Thomas called it at full time saying “I think it (the equaliser) is a foul. I think there’s an elbow in the face and with VAR it would be disallowed, but the ball is put into a brilliant area.”    

I’m not stealing the photo for this one. No idea what the legal people at ‘Rex Features’ are like but do check out the BBC match report for the full, unadulterated evidence of just how blatant this was.

Thomas was, as ever, being diplomatic. There was no ‘think’ about it. It was there and clear to all. Instead, the scores were level and from that point on every effort was made to run down the clock. Every ‘foul’ on the home team milked to the absolute nth degree. Poor Andre Ayew – please could somebody check in on him today and give us the ‘all clear’. They way he flopped around like a fish out of water had me genuinely fearing for his life.

Credit to Swansea. They had a job to do and did it well. Credit to Steve Cooper. Sometimes ugly works. Dirty play and brutal assault have their place in football if the referee won’t punish the assailants . As it was, Mr. Brooks still showed five yellows (including the second for Naughton) but on any other night, or with Keith in charge, one could honestly have expected the game to be abandoned and a nominal 3-0 win awarded to Brentford due to the Swans having insufficient players left on the pitch to continue.

You get the point. There’s no point me moaning anymore. I’ll leave that one to Harry who was unaware his own full time moment was being captured ! Instead, its on to Saturday and the visit from Wycombe. Destiny still well well in our hands. A win would have been marvellous but the most important thing is that we didn’t lose. Didn’t allow Swansea the chance to get further ahead. If there was any justice we’d have gone home with all three points but that’s not how football works. Oh well, we’ll just have to see what the weekend brings. With Rotherham beating Middlesbrough in some style last night, I do wonder what twists the weekend may still hold?

Open letter to Steve Cooper at FT from Harry.#BrentfordFC pic.twitter.com/spxqYC1jIN

— Nick Bruzon (@NickBruzon) January 27, 2021

Nick Bruzon

Time to say goodbye to our past. On and off the pitch.

Let’s. Do. This. Brentford stand 90 minutes away from Wembley and a shot at the Premier League. Swansea are the visitors on an evening that sees our last, last, last ever game at Griffin Park. Despite the build up of the regular campaign, it has been typical of life at Griffin Park that it has come to this one rather than the Barnsley fixture. And now we are here. Steve Cooper’s team standing in our way but the good news being that Rico Henry will be standing in theirs. This, after Keith Stroud’s reckless decision to award our man a straight red in the first leg was over-turned yesterday.

The verdict was – great tackle

Finally. Something has gone our way. A frustrating few days for the players has ended with them being given a huge shot in the arm. Swansea have that narrow 1-0 lead but everybody around the club is talking the right way. Whilst Cooper says his team won’t be playing for the draw Thomas Frank is in no doubt how our team will approach this one, telling the press that: “We are in total combat mode. We are so ready to play and we will come out flying …There are important games and then there are little bit more important games; this is one of those defining games and moments. We are not nervous; we know we need to attack”

As for Steve Cooper’s approach of going for the win, whilst offering all the necessary respect Thomas was clear that they could be split. “In the back of their minds they know they have something to protect.”

And therein lies the beauty / stress of two-legged football. Do they stick or twist? Will their approach waiver? Might the pressure of holding this slim advantage do strange things to them? The prize on offer is a huge one. Namely, that £170million chance of top flight football. It feels as though we’ve had more bites at this than Jaws but now really is THE time and I’m 100% confident we’ll do this.

The beers, pizzas, goals sweets and even mid-game extra strong mints are in. If you do one thing this evening, PLEASE have a packet of these on hand – something on a par with the lucky shirt, magic pants and JJ’s bladder in the lucky omen stakes when it comes to good goal news.

What will Thomas do? Subject to any injuries, I’d imagine he may be looking to mix things up a little bit. Knowing how well we play at our very best, the team names itself but there has been one hell of a lot of football played on recent weeks. There could be some exhausted players. What price would you put on somebody who may not have started every game but does have potentially fresher legs. Might we see a start for Shandon Baptiste or even Sergi Canos?

If anyone can inspire us, it is Thomas

Brentford official name the teams at 6.45pm and from there, we know what the approach will be. For me, it is one of channeling the spirit of the season. Play with confidence. With swagger. Run at our your opponents. Know the way to goal. Keep going and never , ever give up. Think Jota. Not just in playing until the final minute but remember Jake Bidwell. Our former captain has had what could politely be described as a turgid time in recent returns to Griffin Park. More of the same would do very nicely, thank you.

As for farewell Griffin Park, what can you say? Now really is the time. We’d all LOVE to be there. We are all desperate to be there. The players would love us there but for that reason alone, I truly believe they will have the extra impetus to do this tonight. Peter Gilham will say the right words. He’ll make the right noise on the microphone. Nobody will be in doubt what this means. Not only for our future but also as a means of saying goodbye to our past. On and off the pitch.

I can’t wait for this one. It promises to be one the biggest games in our long history. One can’t under estimate how much is riding on this. We’ve never been in the Premier League before – could this be the moment we leave the EFL behind? The Bees have the power – will Thomas Frank’s big guns fire?

See you at kick off when we find out.

This really is it…..

Nick Bruzon