Griffin Park is one of the few old-school grounds left in English football, hemmed in by housing and retaining terracing – a rarity in the Championship in the days of all-seater stadiums since the dawn of the Premier League era.
A nice piece on the BBC to commemorate the final game at GP which happened in the week.
Griffin Park: Can Brentford give ground perfect send-off by winning promotion through the play-offs?
By Rob Stevens
BBC Sport
Griffin Park, with its empty Ealing Road terrace (left) hosted its final Championship game last Wednesday when Brentford were beaten by Barnsley
Sky Bet Championship play-off semi-finals, second leg: Brentford v Swansea (agg 0-1)
Date: Wednesday, 29 July Kick-off: 19:45 BST Coverage: Live text on BBC Sport website from 19:15 BST, commentary on BBC Radio London and BBC Radio Wales
The turnstiles at Griffin Park have already rattled for a final time. The Ealing Road terrace, usually a swelling mass of bodies on match days, stands empty.
However, the ground, Brentford’s home since 1904, will host one final game on Wednesday night before the west London club move into a new stadium this summer.
???????? – "A proper football ground – so old you can smell the history."
Griffin Park has been Brentford's home since 1904, tonight they hope to give it the perfect farewell in their play-off semi-final second-leg against Swansea…????⚪
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.
