Brentford lost to ten-man Blackburn Rovers this weekend, the latest in a sequence of defeats that has dragged the club into a relegation scrap. Despite the arrival of a new striker, Leandro Rodriguez from Everton, and the return of Scott Hogan, the Bees created little in the way of clear-cut chances, and Rovers’ late strike was enough to secure all three points. The performance was enough for some fans to be reaching for their crossword puzzles in search of clues that will help end this awful run.
With Rodriguez starting, and Sam Saunders replacing Swift – dropped for his tasteless social media post on Friday – Bees fans were hoping for more creativity, and although this was an improved performance on both the Charlton and QPR second half outings, the lack of a cutting edge was just as evident unfortunately.
Alan Judge looked a shadow of his usual self as the home side struggled against a robust team of giants, but Rovers demonstrated they are certainly better equipped for rolling their sleeves up and digging in for the points.
Barbet’s free-kick was the closest the Bees got to a goal in the first half, Steel in the Rovers goal tipping the shot wide – that was just one of three on target all afternoon – and it was David Button who was the busier of the two stoppers.
As you will hear in the Beesotted Pride of West London post-match Podcast and in the Beesotted Terrace Video, the sense of desperation is spreading, because for all their possession there was a certain inevitability that it would all come to nothing yet again.
The second half saw the introduction of Canos, Vibe and Hogan as Dean Smith looked to take advantage of the dismissal of Hanley for his second bookable offence, but half an hour with a numerical advantage ultimately meant nothing – Rovers grabbed the winning goal and it was a chorus of boos that met the final whistle a split second after Harlee Dean blazed over the Ealing Road stand.
There really are no positives to take from this match – Brentford look lightweight and impotent – the formation, and the selection to play within that has stopped creating chances, and when half chances do come our way, there’s nothing clinical about the Bees.
Thankfully there is a two-week international break now, time in which to reflect, regroup and prepare ourselves to put this sorry situation right, starting at Nottingham Forest and then on to Ipswich Town.
Neither will be easy matches, and with the teams directly below us in far superior form, you’d have to be a pretty positive Bees fan not to see that we are being sucked into a genuinely perilous relegation battle.
Dave Lane
@beesotted100
Spotify
Apple Podcasts
CastBox
Acast
TuneIn
Google Podcasts
Not sure Judge is as effective in the free role as he is out wide/cutting in. He’s our best crosser and didn’t always take the opportunity to slip people through yesterday.
Our strikers haven’t had great service at all recently, so I wonder whether allowing Judge carte blanche is the right thing to do. A tactical problem rather than his.
Solutions?: Swift or Hoffman in the No 10 role, with wide midfielders (Judge/Canos) playing out wide.
Dusclaimet – just a fan observation, by no means an expert…
Dear Beesotted crew
You seem to have forgotten there’s a rather important home game against Bolton sandwiched in between the Forest and Ipswich games – possibly the defining game of the season.
Also I’m a bit puzzled you claimed before Saturday that Blackburn were a mid-table side with nothing to play for, given that they were on the same points as us with one game more played.
We don’t want to think Beesotted’s usually solid grasp of the facts is slipping, do we?
Regards
Gordon
Dear Gordon and Hobbo … the Bolton game we knew was in the ether there somewhere .. but it’s all starting to merge into one nowadays … but as things go, the Bolton game has even greater importance now
As for the Blackburn game .. interestingly .. speaking to the Blackburn fans before the match (as we do), they were in no way in the same doom and gloom zone that the Bees fans were .. and when we asked if they felt they were in relegation trouble, none of them really did … mainly because they felt they were more inconsistent than a poor team … and they were right .. they will be nowhere near the zone …
Hi, what do you think of NB doing a Trotsky on me?
The irony is, that he is a hypocrite, who is scared of his own shadow when it comes to really getting to the nitty gritty about the club’s ongoing deterioration and only approves of those that tow the party line; he should stick to his puerile obsession with shirts and fourth rate “humour” pieces.
Where’s Lewis McCleod?
Confidence is a big factor. If we can get a couple of results go our way I believe we have enough talent and potential in the squad to get back to playing the way we have been over the last few years.
I’d like to comment on two things that happened in the first half.
Firstly, Yennaros rounded a Blackburn defender on their dead-ball line. There was contact between the two which these days generally means the attacker goes to ground trying to influence a penalty. Although he stumbled he commendably remained on his feet & tried to influence the game not the Ref.
Secondly when a Rovers player took exception to Yennaros disposing him near the corner flag {god knows what for}McCormack went over in support of Yennaros. This earned the ire of the Rovers player who stormed up to McCormack & brought their heads together in which could only be described as marginally short of a head-but. We have seen similar situations where the recipient goes down as though hit by a 4X2 to get the other player sent off. No one can doubt McCormack’s courage or commitment to Brentford but he is better than that and he chose to diffuse the situation even convincing the Ref that it was ” a storm in a tea-cup lets get on with the game”. Of course actually putting his hand on the Ref might not have been the wisest thing to have done. Having the Ref start brandishing red cards was in no-ones best interest.
Dave I think the integrity & sportsmanship shown by those two Brentford players is a positive that you can take out of this game
Richard.
After “the nerd’s last word” launched a vicious attack on myself and my posts, along the way demonstrating in his own nasty words, the very bad qualities he ascribes to myself, I continue to try to tell a truth that lily livered yes man and blog abuser, is incapable of doing.
Judge confirms he is leaving; who can blame him, after his scintillating run of form , carrying on from last season, has been squandered on the mess that has been crafted by Benham and his acolytes, during the current season.
His comments re- being asked by MW, to join Rangers, are so true and revealing of Warburton’s worth as a manager, the respect he is held in by the players and the catastrophic blunder made by Benham, in manoevering him out of the club.
I feel great sadness over what could have been achieved, had MW been allowed to continue his great work at BFC.
The Dublin-born midfielder, 27, said Warburton had been a huge influence in his career, but also admitted there was NO WAY he would move to Ibrox.
Hoops fan Judge said: “I wouldn’t be going to Rangers (sic) – not a chance.
“I had a call in the summer and I went: ‘Are you kidding me? I’d get killed if I went up there!’
“Was I asked? Yeah, of course, he did, but, no, not a chance.
“He’s a great manager and was the reason I went to Brentford. I’ve a lot to thank him for and I’d really look forward to working with him again in the future, if that’s possible.
– See more at: http://www.celticquicknews.co.uk/judge-rules-against-sevco/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+co%2FIRuC+%28Celtic+Quick+News%29#sthash.URxloSo2.dpuf
SAY NO MORE!