Brentford showed their fighting spirit and attacking quality in a roller coaster game at Aston Gate, and notched an important first win of the season and for our new manager.
The Bees found themselves behind twice in the match as City attacked with pace in front of their home fans, the hosts had clearly identified the left hand side as their route one to goal and Brentford’s Achilles heel … Alan McCormack had a torrid afternoon as two players came at him in waves, Macca refused to buckle though.
Marinus will not have been happy at how easily his defence was breached for either of City’s goals, and it it were not for some wayward shooting, and some good saves from David Button, the Robins could have been out of sight at the break. They really did wrack up the shots at goal.
The Bees refused to bow down though, and struck back well –the first after ex Bees keeper Ben Hamer flapped Andre Gray’s shot into the path of Alan Judge, who made no mistake from close range, and the second leveller was an own goal with Andre Gray causing terror one more.
Brentford’s cause was helped no end when Luke Freeman was sent off for a dangerous kick in the head to Harlee Dean, who, after lengthy treatment, played on… James Tarkowski was less fortunate, however, when an elbow caught him in the head on the stroke of half time and lead to his replacement from Jack O’Connell. Tarkowski looks to have broken his nose judging by the picture on his Twitter feed – and City could have been down to nine. As you will seen from the Bristol City Raider clip in the Beesotted Video this week, not all City fans saw the kick as a red card offence! A classic clip!!
With a man advantage the Bees controlled the second half, and after a couple of close scares, excellently finished goals from Andre Gray and Hoffman wrapped up the points. The winning margin could have been even more as Brenrford wracked up huge possession stats and chances, but Bees fans went home delighted that their side had ended a troubled week on a high.
The Brentford fans back in the pub were realistic about the second half papering over the cracks, but as you will hear in this weekend’s Pride of West London Beesotted Podcast (click link below), many knew that the result was all-important as the Bees look to build a new-look team and settle into a new season.
Andre Gray’s return to the starting eleven was a significant factor, and his rich vein of form will no doubt have his admirers sniffing around even more between now and the end of the season, but his goals are certainly doing the talking for the moment and it is hoped we can hold on to a player who is clearly going from strength to strength at this level.
On a more worrying note Bees fans were left to run the gauntlet of a mob of City supporters outside the ground where there seemed to be no police presence whatsoever at the exit from the away end.
Kids in Bees shirts were pushed and punched, and although there were only a small handful of fans intent on trouble, the lack of the police at the away exit was certainly a factor in how things escalated.
Dave Lane
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