Brentford’s Pressure Drop In Form

Beesotted regular Jimmy Mack describes how Brentford’s recent dip in form has hit both fans and players alike but urges Bees supporters to keep the faith

It’s fair to say that Brentford fans seem to have taken the defeat at Orient particularly badly…This may not necessarily be because we feel we deserved anything from the game, but the defeat has given us an unwelcome dose of reality as to what our realistic expectations are for this season.

The morning sports reports didn’t help either as every journalist was keen to congratulate Orient on their great start, with Brentford’s only mention being a parting reference to another side left in the wake of their brilliance.

Monday night’s match at Griffin park was far from a one sided affair, but it was alarming, and uncharacteristic, the way our game fell to pieces as soon as Orient took the lead. We went from a team in control, to playing a style of football reminiscent of a side who know they need two goals to stay up on the last day of the season with five minutes left on the clock. Truly desperate stuff.

Whereas last year when things were going against us we stuck to our game and can reference matches against Portsmouth and MK Dons where we managed to turn disappointing looking results into wins with the right mentality.

So what has changed? Is the pressure of the new-found expectation of Brentford getting to the players? The stats would suggest there might be something in this as, since that Pompey win, we have only managed three wins in 14 league games. That’s certainly far from acceptable from a team expecting promotion.

We all got pretty carried away at the start of the season with the influx of new talent and then the win against Sheffield United (not such a great result in hindsight) setting our imaginations wild with the possibility of us running away with the league, but last night’s result would’ve given us all the wake-up needed if anybody was still dreaming big.

The support has been brilliant for the team the last few weeks – the away support at Tranmere was fantastic and we had a good crowd on Tuesday night considering the obvious attraction of watching on Sky. I feel that is a clear indication that the fans are fully behind the players and there’s no need to press the panic button at the first sign of things going wrong.

This Brentford side definitely has a good run in them, and when we get a settled side together for a few games, I’m sure the wins will come and the confidence will flow through the side.

Interestingly, a quick look back to this day last year, shows the league placings of the eventually promotion contenders looked like this.

Tranmere 1st
Doncaster 10th
Brentford 11th
Yeovil 13th
Bournemouth 18th

So, there is a long way to go and, if you don’t believe me, ask a Tranmere Rovers fan. As I said, there is no need to panic just yet… Unless you support Orient of course.

Stay with the team

@jimmymack84