It really doesn’t seem so long since we were cheering ourselves hoarse after celebrating promotion and here we were back at Griffin Park less than three months later for the first home friendly match of the new Championship season.
The message seemed to have got out about the new ticketing system and several friends reported no more than a few minutes’ wait before they were able to purchase a ticket at the Sales Booth.
You can install all the technology and new fangled systems that you like, but they are only as good as the human beings that operate them and my turnstile operator was banana fingered and totally flummoxed and needed five tortuous goes before my ticket was duly swiped and entrance allowed.
I hurried inside impatiently and concerned, but I needn’t have worried.
Griffin Park was resplendent, glistening and glinting in the baking July sunshine and you could see that massive and painstaking efforts had been made on a makeover to upgrade the facilities for the larger crowds ahead.
Griffin Park really looked at its best and the pitch was a sea of verdant green.
What about the football you might well ask?
Well that was pretty good too and the Bees saw off their toughest challenge yet by defeating OGC Nice of Ligue 1 in France by three goals to two.
The new boys all impressed.
Marcos Tebar dovetailed perfectly with Jonathan Douglas with one holding back and the other marauding forward and he was strong and relentless in his tackling and pressing as well as confident on the ball with an excellent range of passing.
He looks like he could be the fulcrum for the entire team and he really excited me.
Moses Odubajo was a ball of fire and human dynamo on the right, terrifying his wingback with his sheer pace and persistence.
He made clever runs, darting inside and out and he got behind the defence several times and his final delivery was quick and incisive.
No “parting like the Red Sea” jokes here but he will shine in the Championship and mesmerise defenders. I would also put him down for ten goals too.
I never really thought I would ever see the day when my Brentford, once the pauper of London football, surviving on begging bowls and handouts, were going to be in the position to spend one million pounds on a player but Moses is the real deal and deserves all the accolades he will receive.
We played a 4-2-3-1 formation with Judge and Pritchard rotating in the middle and down the left like effervescent balls of fire.
Pritchard is a game changer with the ability to open up a defence at will and he scored with a perfect Saundersesque 25 yard free kick dinked over the wall as well as a close range finish when the Nice defence, not for the first time, evaporated and self destructed.
Andre Gray looked like a welterweight, all honed muscle allied to real pace and ability on the ball.
He sprinted into the gap between two immobile central defenders to score coolly and immaculately in the first minute and he looked a real prospect, revelling in his lone striker role.
Scott Hogan also showed that he was no slouch before limping off after a worrying blow to his ankle.
It has to be said that at times Nice defended naively and their gross overplaying at the back cost them the crucial third goal but coming forward they attacked with vim and gusto and provided our defence with a gruelling challenge which they met with flying colours.
So overall a good day all round with optimism unbounded.
The Bees won, played well and with a confident swagger with nary a long ball in sight.
They certainly lack height in key areas and it remains to be seen whether the intricate ball skills of Judge and Pritchard prove effective against some of the Neanderthals we will come up against over the coming nine months.
In Odebajo and Gray we certainly possess two match winners and it looks like we have bought wisely and well.
Yet today was about far more than the actual football.
It was the renewal of a right of passage.
Football is back at Griffin Park and everything is right with the world.
Greville Waterman
@grevwaterman
Never, in my over 30 years of watching ‘football’ at Griffin Park have I ever been so excited by the group of players that Rossler and now Warburton have amassed and put together. This group of newbies have taken us to another level and having won promotion with, let’s be honest, no out and out striker on the books but more so, a strong group of attacking midfielders pushing forward after Trotta done a sterling job of holding it up but what we saw yesterday is quality and strength in abundance and the replacement of players who although were laudible in their efforts in gaining us promotion, I’m not sure they would have cut the mustard in the Championship.
Gone are Donaldson who for all his tireless running and brilliant work ethic, would frustrate more than please you, when he worked so hard and got in to the goal scoring position, by inevitably missing or skying his shot and never really ever being able to cleanly hit a ball, plus his atrocious efforts at one on ones when all fans had resigned themselves to him missing gamely once again and his own teammates pretty much getting themselves back in position to defend a goal kick as opposed to celebrating a goal. He was replaced with Gray in yesterday’s line up and in less than 2 minutes of his home debut, showed us how to coolly finish a one on one with steely nerve and put all memories of Donaldsons efforts behind us as quickly as his name got on the scoresheet.
We have also bought in Hogan who for the short period of time he was on, looks a real prospect and showed more passion and effort in 25 mins than I seen from the (& I still can’t quite actually believe it) International player, Grigg. How we managed to palm him off to MK Dons after his performance against them at MK Dons arena last year, is possibly Warburtons best ever master stroke, as from anyone else watching it was the single handedly most non existing performance ever witnessed.
We have got Odebajo on the right wing and yesterday was the first time I’ve witnessed anything like that speed and strength on the wing at Griffin Park since Smiley but even Smiley for all his pace and ability, didn’t have anywhere near the strength of this man mountain. He looks a steel at a million and as said above, when did Brentford ever look to compete in the transfer market like we have done this summer. Thank you thank you thank you Mathew Benham.
Then we had Tebar in the middle of the park, who looks like every Spanish footballer in recent years, as comfortable on the ball under pressure or when pressed to not only find a player but with class and flair too. He reminded me of John Buttigeeg from time gone by when he would control it on his chest, take it on his knee, lay it off to a wing back or sprayed it forward, only to be derided by the older contingent of the GP crowd and told to “stop messing about and get rid of it”. (What will these older generations make of the football on the floor and the controlling possession game we now play? Although im sure they’ll find something to moan about) He lost it a few times when our players had pushed on and were caught out of position when possession was turned over but I’m sure Warburton and the team saw this and will have a gentle reminder to him but we also saw who I thought was the best player on an opposition team against us last year at Griffin Park in Pritchard. He looks absolute quality and did so when playing for Swindon last year. We have now got not just one but 2 of the best 3 players in League 1 in our midfield this season and she we can find positions for Forshaw and Pritchard in same team, we might see something special happening.
Our defence looks solid too and think the acquisition of Tarkowski at the end of last season was brilliant and a sign of things to come and with McCormacks steel to come back in as well, look solid enough there too.
I do think we are a little light still at centre back alongside Tarkowski with both Craig and Dean who might well struggle in the faster paced, more clinical division of The Championship and I’m still not totally convinced by Button in goal but that aside, genuinely think that this is far and beyond our best ever team of players by some distance in 40 odd years anyway. Having seen who was not involved at all yesterday and with talk of Warburton still looking to bring in 2 more players, I think our only issue is going to be trying to keep all the players happy with game time. It’s going to be very difficult to get a game especially in midfield and it’s a long long season ahead and with pressures from parent clubs for our loan players who will want them playing in games the large percentage of time, we will have players on contracts who might see their own time on the pitch drastically cut down and might lead to unrest but from what I have seen on and off the pitch this summer, this is shaping up to be one hell of a season ahead and far from talk of ‘surviving’ in the Championship this year, think we might shock and surprise a good few of the big names coming down to Griffin Park or when on the road.
I would love to see this momentum maintained til we begin life in our new stadium which must be more like 3 years away now as opposed to the 2 promised, as there are still tenants on the land not moved on and not a single excavation or brick laid yet, so think the reality will be starting season 2017-18 as opposed to 2016-17. That’s long time from now and who knows what ahead of us but as Brentford fans, we know only too well by now not to count our chickens but with the football and footballers on display yesterday, the management and back room staff looking ever more professional by the day, Griffin Park having had a makeover and with Benham at the helm overseeing it all, it’s the most exciting time ever to be a Brentford fan.
Come on you Bees, make us proud of being one of Londons top top clubs and put us up there in the top 30 teams in the country by finishing top half of Championship. Daydream believers.
Great comments! There are certainly some Great Expectations around the club at the moment. I just hope we’re not all getting too carried away. I also note SkyBet have shortened our odds on both Champions (from 40 to 33/1) and Promotion (11 to 10/1) since #AreWeNearlyThereYet Pt 13!