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Visits by Notts County inevitably resurrect memories of the villains of previous clashes between the two teams with the names of Gary Owers and Mr Bigger top of the list by some considerable distance. Although there may be much debate as to who deserves the tag of the biggest villain of them all there can be little doubt as to which of them inflicted the most severe damage.

When Gary Owers dropped to his knees in a mocking manner to sarcastically taunt Paul Evans as he left the field after receiving a red card in February 2000, his actions were greeted with fury around the stadium and cast him forever more in the mould of one destined never to go unnoticed on future returns to Griffin Park.

However, the antics of referee Bigger on Easter Monday 1993 proved to be far more damaging and etched his name firmly in the script of ‘what-might-have-been’ in the last painful weeks of the relegation campaign.


Brentford 2, Notts County 2​ (Monday 12th April 1993)

There were just four games remaining after Notts County’s visit and with Phil Holder’s Brentford team clinging precariously to their hard-earned Division One status, every point would be crucial in the run-in, particularly with a trip to Upton Park to face the high-flying Hammers in the next match.

The first home win of 1993 was still awaited and, before a Bank Holiday crowd of 8,045, the scent of victory was finally in the air despite the Magpies taking an early lead when the leggy Tony Agana burst past Keith Millen and Kenny Sansom, displaying none of the qualities that had earned him 86 international caps, slipped over to allow Paul Devlin to fire the opener.

The response was superb and in the 18th minute Marcus Gayle’s pin-point cross was volleyed home by Alan Dickens. Midway through the second period, the noise levels almost lifted the Griffin Park roof as a Paul Stephenson corner was headed on by Terry Evans and Gary Blissett squeezed the ball through a forest of legs into the corner of the net – and a precious and elusive home victory was on the cards.

That was until the intervention of the referee …

Mr Raymond Lennox Bigger, a 43-year old Regional Sales Director who had been on the Football League list for little more than three years and whose previous claim to fame had been officiating at the Isthmian Hitachi Cup Final, opted to allow play to continue after the 90 minutes were up. Griffin Park was ready to explode into a party atmosphere as the anticipated relief of three points dangled in front of supporters and players alike, but Mr Bigger inexplicably and incredibly allowed play to go on, and on … and on.

The man in black somehow contrived to keep the game going for an astonishing eight extra minutes until the home supporters, almost breathless from the continual whistling reminders, were finally silenced in an agonising moment as County defender Richard Walker’s mis-hit and scuffed shot bobbled onto a post and crept into the net – prompting Mr Bigger to immediately blow his whistle to signal the end of the proceedings.

The visitors celebrated as if they’d won the World Cup as the referee left the field, surrounded by stewards and being in no doubt as to the depth of feeling towards him from the home supporters.

Chris Hatherall of the Ealing Gazette described the agony etched on the faces of Bees supporters in words that still prove painful to read even now, 20 years later, and although assistant manager Wilf Rostron – who faced the press instead of a distraught Phil Holder – bravely emphasised that it was another point added to the tally, the majority of supporters just knew that the events of those added-on minutes would prove to be a fatal blow.

And so they were. With three of the remaining four games ending in defeats, the season finished with Brentford in 22nd place and suffering relegation back to the lower leagues by the margin of just one single point. Those two extra points, lost in the 98th minute on Easter Monday, could have condemned Sunderland instead to the Second Division.

There can be few Brentford supporters who were around in 1993 who don’t curse at the mention of Raymond Bigger. In the programme biog he described one of his hobbies as gardening – if only he’d opted for some weeding or hedge-cutting instead of refereeing on that painful afternoon!

Mark Croxford