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Beesotted contributor Toby Maxtone-Smith explains why he feels Alan McCormack’s grit, determination and experience is crucial to Brentford’s promotion run-in

When Alan McCormack ran onto Marcello Trotta’s flick-on three minutes into the second half on Saturday, what did I think? Had this not been McCormack, I would have thought ‘pffff, a right-back’s never going to score a goal like this. At least win a corner’. But I didn’t. The moment the bald Irishman galloped through an enormous hole in the Coventry defence I knew there was only one outcome. McCormack half-volleyed the ball into the corner with no fuss at all. The goal, his second for the club after a penalty against Staines Town, said a lot about the single-mindedness of our signing of the season.

In 1968 Brian Clough, manager of Second Division side Derby County, had put together an excellent little side, mainly made up of malleable players plucked for pennies from the depths of the Football League (Roy McFarland from Tranmere, John McGovern from Hartlepools United). However Cloughie realised that youthful endeavour alone was not enough, and that he needed a wise, battle-hardened influence in the team. So he and Peter Taylor persuaded Dave Mackay, who was on the cusp of managing Tottenham, to come up the M1 and join the Rams.

Derby went up that year, and Mackay won Football Writers’ Player of the Year, one of only two players ever to have done so from outside the top flight (the other was Alan Mullery while at Fulham in 74/75). The resemblances to Brentford and McCormack are obvious, and striking.

The great thing about McCormack is that he’d toughened up the rest of the team. He inspires bravery and commitment in others. A true leader leads by example. The young players in the team have looked to McCormack for guidance, and they have become more resolute as a result.

Despite terrifying most of his opponents, McCormack never oversteps the mark, unlike, say, Lee Cattermole at Sunderland – another blood-and-thunder type of player. Brentford fans have never questioned his discipline. The best example of this came against Leyton Orient, about half way through the first half. Dean Cox had been giving McCormack a pretty tough time up until then, but when a mêlée gathered after two Orient players had combined to hack down Adam Forshaw, Cox unwisely joined in. McCormack just pushed him in the chest. Nothing serious, but then again McCormack could make eating cornflakes look intimidating.

From then on, Cox was a bystander, and Orient’s excellent start subsided. To call the incident the turning point in the match may be stretching it a bit far, but it was certainly the pivotal moment in McCormack and Cox’s individual battle. And McCormack’s performance often dictates the overall performance of the team. His streetwise has become the hallmark of the tougher, meaner Bees side we have seen this year. Few things give me more pleasure than hearing embittered opposition fans labelling us ‘dirty’, as the opposite was true last year.

He’s not all sweat and shouting though. He’s actually a quite a skilful player, but in a very different way from Adam Forshaw. Where Forshaw looks like he’s got all day on the ball, McCormack plays at a much quicker pace, firing balls out wide, often on his first touch, to Donaldson and Judge. He puts in some lovely crosses shuttling forward from right-back, and his goal on Saturday was not the finish of a man who’s only on the pitch to give the opposition a kicking.

All this praise for a right-back. It is very rare for a full-back to have such an influence on a team. Oh yeah, and his first game at right-back – what was it? Colchester at home. Which game was the tuning point in our season? Colchester at home. Not a coincidence.

The three away games in eight days facing the Bees are just the kind of games for which we need McCormack firing on all cylinders. The first is up at Rotherham on Tuesday night. It’s a big test against one of League One’s surprise packages. The Millers put in a muscular performance to edge us out 1-0 at Griffin Park, but we’re a miles better team now.

It’s a new ground (and a nice one apparently, not a Shrewsbury or a Colchester), it’s not the hardest drive up the M1, and your reward will be seeing the best Brentford side most of us have ever seen. Be there if you can.

Toby Maxtone-Smith
@TRMaxtoneSmith