Wed 29 Jul 2020 22.35 BSTFirst published on Wed 29 Jul 2020 22.11 BST
Bryan Mbeumo celebrates scoring Brentford’s third goal against Swansea with Rico Henry. Photograph: Ben Evans/Huw Evans/Shutterstock
A night for moving on. For shedding baggage, and laying the past to rest. On the night Brentford said their farewells to Griffin Park, they came closer to top-flight football than they have done at any point since 1947. They did so with a sparkling modern brand of football quite at odds with the weathered girders and sardine seats of their old home.
A poor performance and the opportunity to control their future and possible promotion has gone.
The reason- pressure and anxiety? Lack of fitness after so many game and loss of movement and style? Poor passing and no real pressure on the opposition.
So back to likely play-off process after the last round of games next Wednesday unless wild things happen.
As the saying goes currently…”we live in strange times ‘.
Football in the Championship as well as the Premier League has restarted behind closed doors as a result of the pandemic.
Brentford have come back after the lockdown break so well with eight wins. They have slowly pulled in WBA and this is the round with 2 games to go. It started .. and ended.. with WBA one point ahead with the Bees having a better GD.
But the Baggies have screwed up by losing to Huddersfield – so now Brentford have the future in their own hands. Four points needed from their last two games. One tomorrow v Stoke away and then home to Barnsley who a rooted at the bottom of the table.
So now a big, big game tomorrow.
Down to the Globe in Windmill Road to see the outcome.
Brentford made it to the 4th round of the FA Cup and played Leicester City at home. The ‘Foxes’ are going well, currently third in the Premier League. So no fools.
Brentford put out a B team again essentially, as per the against Stoke in the 3rd round. Leicester were not at their strongest as they have lots games on currently including a League Cup semi- on Tuesday.
In the end Brentford played pretty well after a nervous and bad start.
But the line-up shows their perspective on the competition really. And charging full price for the game!
“In England you've two cup competitions – one of the only countries in the world that have that. I love the tradition & culture but sometimes I don’t get it." #BrentfordFC's Danish boss Thomas Frank after his reserves lost to #LeicesterCity reserves in the #FACup. #Bees#Foxespic.twitter.com/k2ZVdhgtlZ
Wed 18 Dec 2019 11.00 GMTLast modified on Wed 18 Dec 2019 11.22 GMT
Bryan Mbeumo wheels away after scoring the only goal in Brentford’s win over Fulham on Saturday. Photograph: Andrew Fosker/BPI/Shutterstock
“The BMW is still running fast,” said Thomas Frank, the Brentford head coach, referring to Saïd Benrahma, Bryan Mbeumo and Ollie Watkins after watching his three-pronged attack combine to devastating effect against Fulham at Griffin Park on Saturday. Watkins carried the ball to the edge of the box, where Benrahma took over, buying a yard of space before scooping a cross towards the back post for Mbeumo to fire the only goal of the game, his eighth of the campaign. Brentford will leave their 115-year-old stadium at the end of this season and have designs of going out with a bang.
Mbeumo, a £5.5m club-record signing, has scored in Brentford’s past four matches, including a 7-0 demolition of Luton. The 20-year-old winger is the latest Brentford player to make a seamless transition from Ligue 2 to the Championship after joining from Troyes in the summer, following in the footsteps of Benrahma and Neal Maupay, the striker who moved to Brighton in August for £16m after two prolific seasons.
Benrahma was a £2.7m signing from Nice after impressing on loan at Châteauroux, and Maupay a £1.6m arrival from Saint-Étienne after shining at Brest. The defender Julian Jeanvier, in effect John Egan’s replacement 18 months ago, joined from Reims, while Maxime Colin, now of Birmingham, piqued Brentford’s interest at Troyes. Yoann Barbet, now of Queens Park Rangers, joined in 2015 after a season at Chamois Niortais.
It is not only in the French market where Brentford have found joy; Watkins was a £1.8m buy from Exeter City in 2017, and in the summer they paid Barnsley £3m for Ethan Pinnock, who was playing for Dulwich Hamlet three years ago. Pinnock has been paired in central defence with Pontus Jansson, who was made captain after arriving from Leeds United in July. The pair in effect replaced Ezri Konsa and Chris Mepham, who this year sealed Premier League moves to Aston Villa and Bournemouth respectively, bringing in £27m.
Brentford have sold almost £100m of talent since 2014 and sales are vital to countering the club’s £10m-£20m annual operating loss. At 28, Jansson represented a noticeable shift, being the oldest outfield player to join since Lasse Vibe four years ago, but strengthening the defence was a priority.
In my mind there was always the memory that my first visit to watch a professional football match was at Griffin Park to watch the Brentford, the Super Bees, was against Crewe Alexandra with a result of 1-0. I went with Patrick who was a Brentford regular and at that stage of course a shareholder of one share following the rescue of the club in 1967.
I did some research, the wonders of stuff online, and found the result of 1-0 against Crewe. So it was the 71/72 season on December 27- so clearly the equivalent of the Boxing Day game.
and clearly a successful season with promotion. Though looking through the results they bounced down within one season back to Division 4.
So memory not all bad. First game at Griffin Park aged 8.
And now we are in the final season at Griffin Park, I am in year 2 as a season ticket holder and the move to Lionel Road is imminent.
The visit to Headingley by Joe and I turned out to be one of those ‘I was there ‘ moments. The Third Test match in the Ashes series turned out to be a classic.
Joe and I bought the tickets for this match last October and it was not possible to obtain tickets for either of the London venues. It turned out to be a significant outlay as only the more expensive tickets were available ; £130 for day three and £65 for day 4. Also being the Bank Holiday weekend the trains fares were ridiculous and the hotel not cheap. It just so happens that there were other events going on in the area- Leeds music festival all weekend and horse racing in York.
So the place was rammed and the trains very busy. From Chesterfield to Leeds on the Saturday there was cramped, shoulder to shoulder standing room only.
On the way the outcome of the match did not look bright with England having been bowled out for a paltry 67 on day 2. I was anticipating another poor batting display after the Australian 2nd innings and the action to be all over by the end of day 3. However it did not turn out that way.
After finishing off the Australian 2nd innings better than expected England actually batted for the most part like it was a Test Match rather than a T-20 match. Though Roy hadn’t learned. Root and Denly played controlled and measured cricket and kept England in the match. Until Denly was out and Stokes came in towards the end of the day. We sat and watched and enjoyed the slow and tense and conservative tempo. Joe and I retired to the town for a fancy burger and couple of beers before bedtime. We we tired- having got up at 4-00 to catch the early train.
On Sunday they came out to resume needing just over 200 to win with 7 wickets standing. It wasn’t long before Root was back in the pavilion and it looked all so unlikely.
There were periods of optimism but wickets continued to fall though Stokes was still there keeping the ball out snd hitting a few runs. Finally he was left with the number 11 and 73 still needed. The game changed and was a classic to watch. As Leach defended his wicket and Stokes consoled the strike so that Leech had 1 02 balls to face, ran suck twos to keep the stroke and began to hit wonderful boundaries. The crowd were active and loving the moment. Cheering the big hits- straight and concocted and the blocking at the other end.
The runs needed were falling and the excitement rose. The Aussies were feeling the pressure. The bowling remained great to watch but errors occurred; in the fielding, the throw to the wrong end, the missed easy run out by Nathan Lyon, the wasted use of a review which left a more clear lbw that was not given un-reviewable.
In the end a fantastic run chase, Stokes 135 not out, Leach noon -out on 1 having batted stoically, the crowd going wild and the press/ media calling it the best batting performance ever and best Test Match ever.
As ever one man gets the attention with some for Leach for his great innings of 1 not-out.
Not so much written about the solid and more dull batting from others to set the platform Stokes did bat so well and adapted his approach extremely well to the changing needs of the match.
The media have gone will not surprisingly – like everyone else for that matter.
Ben Stokes (centre) and Jack Leach lift their arms in celebration after the former hit the winning runs at Headingley. Photograph: Tom Jenkins/The Guardian
Headingley 1981 was a foregone conclusion compared with this. So, too, the World Cup final in July, as Ian Botham’s incredible exploits of 38 years ago have been matched, maybe surpassed. But on a day like this who cares about rankings anyway? Ben Stokes produced the innings of a lifetime to snatch a one-wicket victory, which keeps the Ashes alive and the game alive, while threatening to cause multiple heart failures among those lucky enough to witness this contest.
So in the end Joe and I had a great sporting weekend that did not look that promising. Ah the beauty of Test Cricket.
