Brentford’s unbeaten record at Griffin Park remained in tact following the 2-2 draw with Reading, however, it was a frustrating afternoon, with the visitor’s spoiling tactics described as ’embarrassing’ by former Bee Marcus Gayle. The dropped points also had some questioning whether resting players at The Emirates on Wednesday night had been worth it after all.

Two goalkeeping errors from Daniel Bentley, and a red card for Said Benrahma, looked to have contributed to the first home defeat of the season – The Royals having been gifted an equaliser, then the lead – but Dean Smith’s team dug deep to at least end the afternoon on a positive note and the side move back into the play-off pack.

The afternoon started brightly enough in the West London sunshine, with Neil Maupay slotting Benrahma’s cross home in the 11th minute for his 9th of the season, Ollie Watkins was then inches away from doubling the lead, but then proceedings were turned on their head as Bentley failed to deal with Jonathan Swift’s shot… the ball squirmed goal-wards and Bodvarsson couldn’t miss.

Brentford seemed to struggle to keep up the tempo after that set-back, and became ever more frustrated by Reading’s stalling game – Paul Clement receiving criticism for this side’s lack of ambition and the ten minutes of added time at the end of the match showed how much time wasting there had been. Dean Smith said; “I don’t think I’ve ever been involved in a game like that where ten minutes have been added on and an air ambulance hasn’t arrived.” He certainly had a point!

Bentley will not want to watch this game back again, as it was his second fluff that had given the visitor’s the lead – this time failing to tip a free kick over the ball and watching it agonisingly find the et after another fumble, understandably the Reading fans were on his back for the rest of the match. 

Benrahama, who had an otherwise impressive and lively game, then saw red for a second bookable offence – the Bees winger’s poorly timed tackle earned him an early bath and the Bees their second dismissal of the season. The odds were seriously stacked against us at that stage.

However, it was the sight of the extra time board, registering the number ten, that lifted the home fans and players as one, and within seconds the scores had been levelled – Macleod floated in a perfect corner, Dalsgaard flicked it on, and Barbet headed home at the back post to raise the roof and had the fans roaring their team on for a possible winner.

It wasn’t to be, although a point so late in the day seemed like an unexpected bonus after a frustrating second half in which Reading set themselves up to frustrate. In truth, the Bees are going to have to get used to that and learn how to cope better with teams not prepared to go toe-to-toe with us, and on another day, with Dan Bentley back on form, I’m sure that would have been another three pointer. 

Birmingham City are next up on Tuesday night under the Griffin Park floodlights, a fixture that few will need reminding ended 5-0 to Brentford last season. It’s going to be a another tough test though as The Blues will want to make up for that embarrassment – they have been playing some decent football this season, and although their results are erratic, they’ll want to head south to take revenge on the 7-0 aggregate score from last campaign.

Dave Lane
@Beesotted100

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