Three days on from putting three past Tottenham, Brentford are on the road – and this one comes with a bit of history attached – St Andrew’s for a League Cup tie against Birmingham City. Billy “The Bee” Grant sat down with an old friend of the show, Blues fan Davo, to talk about the match.
The rivalry runs deeper than most Brentford fans under thirty probably realise. Big battles in the 90s, regular Championship meetings, and no love lost before or after that big League Cup clash at St. Andrews in 2010. Billy remembers exactly what that reunion looked like: coaches from Hounslow turned back by police, helicopters over the ground after the final whistle, a proper moody away day and extra time defeat for The Bees.
There’s history off the pitch too. Birmingham once raided Brentford’s squad wholesale – Harley Dean, Jota and Maxime Collin all heading up the M40 in the same window, with Dean apparently telling anyone who’d listen that “Birmingham City are ten times better than Brentford.” Funny how that looks now. Davo, to his credit, didn’t dodge the irony: “It’s quite funny looking back,” he admitted, “the irony of us taking your players and you going on to bigger and better things.”
Because Birmingham’s own story since has been anything but smooth. Chinese ownership imploded into farce – a director reportedly offering out a fan in the car park doesn’t happen at a well-run club – before American investors Knighthead arrived three years ago promising stability. Instead, Blues appointed Wayne Rooney, got relegated to League One, then bounced straight back up under Chris Davies with a record points total. Davo’s honest about the roller-coaster ride: “That’s the classic Blues way. We don’t do things conventionally, and it goes wrong if we can find a way for it to go wrong.”
What’s not in doubt is the investment. St Andrew’s has been rebuilt from a ground with no hot water in the toilets into somewhere Davo says fans are “proud to call home again,” and there’s a 62,000-seat stadium – nicknamed The Powerhouse – on the drawing board a few years down the line. Whether a Championship club fills six figures’-worth of extra seats is a different conversation, and Billy pushed hard on it, but for now Birmingham are unbeaten from two league games, drawing at Sheffield United and 2-2 with Bristol City after beating Barcelona on penalties in preseason.
On the pitch, expect Birmingham close to full strength – Colombian midfielder Jhon Solis has quickly become a fans’ favourite, record signing Jay Stansfield offers a bit of magic, while Brentford’s academy graduate Rommel Donovan (who we signed from the Blues and currently out on loan gaining minutes at Sheffield United) got a glowing reference from Davo as a player with genuine star quality.
For Brentford, this fixture is exactly the kind of tie the summer’s squad depth was built for – with Keith Andrews facing difficult selection decisions. We expect big rotations from the Spurs win, although there will be a temptation not to take risks in a competition we will be hoping to go deep into again.
Davo fancies “another little penalty shootout” and Blues coming out on top again. As for The Bees, we’ll settle for goals, a proper atmosphere at St Andrew’s, and bragging rights back where they belong.
Hear the full chat – including the stadium debate and the American-ownership discussion in full – on the Beesotted Pride of West London mini-pod, out now wherever you get your podcasts.
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