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Brentford recorded their first win in the Second tier of English football since April 1993 on Tuesday night, and in doing so took a big stride forward in regards to the Championship Marathon.

Two superb goals from Pritchard and Dallas allowed the Bees to come from behind to run out 2-1 victors.

Let’s face it, anything less than a win against one of the weaker teams in the division would have been disappointing. Blackpool was in no sense a ‘must-win’ game, but to come away without 3 points would have been gutting, especially to the 500 odd Brentford fans who travelled so far North it gave them nosebleeds.

There were plenty of positives to take out of this performance. It is essential this season that we are able to see games out, and there will be plenty of games in which we will have to scrap for points. Perhaps the biggest positive that we can take out of Tuesday’s win is that we showed our competence with regards to this.

At times we were on the back foot, and Blackpool looked up for it, but we managed to subdue them and carry on pressing them right until the final whistle. That is what this season is going to be about. When we take the lead we need to be able to hold onto it, and that is what we did on Tuesday.

At the beginning of the season I couldn’t see Dallas breaking into our starting eleven, but since then he has been a crucial component in the fixtures against Charlton, Dagenham & Redbridge and Blackpool. He has scored 3 goals in 4 games and is probably one of the first names on the team-sheet, despite the quality and quantity of our other midfielders.
While he is does not possess the skill or pace of other Championship midfielders, you cannot fault his work rate and that is going to be a key asset to us this season.

Having spent a reported £1.5million on Jota, the first impression that he has made is a positive one. He only came on towards the end of the game but ‘twinkle-toes’ looks like a good player. He must be if Warburton was prepared to splash out the equivalent of three Andre Gray’s on him.

My Man of the Match would probably have been either Pritchard, who looks threatening every time he gets on the ball, or Tony Craig, who had a great game. Whether heading clear or producing a goal-saving tackle when Blackpool appeared to be in, Tony always seemed to be at the rescue.
At Full-Time a chorus of “Bees Up, Fulham Down” rang around Bloomfield Road. Little was it known that in 24 hours’ time the final whistle would be sounded at Molineux to signal a 1-0 win for Wolves against the Cottagers.

I’m sure I wasn’t the only Bees fan thinking it funny how we spent all of last season wishing for Wolves to lose, only now to be celebrating a victory for the Wanderers.

With the Bees making steady progress in the Championship Marathon, it appears that Fulham are still twiddling their thumbs on the starting line. The fact that the Cottagers are bringing up the rear shows how tough the Marathon is this year, and there are some very strong runners amongst the pack.

Wigan have also only just got underway and already have ground to make up. I’m sure Adam Forshaw in particular is noticing their poor start to the season.

Charlton have stormed ahead and are now leading the pack. Our 1-1 draw with them is starting to look better and better.

Saturday marks the return of Donaldinho to Griffin Park, and I hope the Brentford fans give him a warm welcome. He has been a great servant to the club and played a huge hand in our promotion last season. I do not hold it to him that he left for a ‘bigger’ club. That’s football and that happens.
Another three points would put us in a great position four games in and would further provide the foundation for a very successful season. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

As it stands Brentford are firmly in the middle of the pack. The next few fixtures will hopefully prove that we can thrive in the Championship Marathon and see us break into the top half. But it still very early days. And it is a marathon, not a sprint.

James Tippett