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Strangely, the weekend of 2nd and 3rd March has a remarkable resonance when it comes to Brentford versus Scunthorpe United fixtures.

Scunthorpe have been not infrequent visitors to Griffin Park in the recent past and for a while they proved to be one of the most welcome. When Brentford beat “The Iron” on 3rd March 1973 it started a sequence of 10 successive home wins against the team from North Lincolnshire who failed to pick up a single point in West London until 3rd March 2007. The 34-year run came to an end during the disastrous Rosenior/Fitzgerald relegation season and was one of 10 home league defeats during the 2006/2007 campaign – in fact you can see Kevin O’Connor’s missed penalty in the YouTube clip above from that game.

In the midst of the 10-match winning streak came a memorable encounter on Saturday 5thMay 1984. Perhaps not memorable for the quality of the football on show but memorable for the fact that the 3-0 victory all-but-ensured survival from relegation at the end of another fraught season.

 

Brentford 3, Scunthorpe United 0 (5thMay 1984)

Frank McLintock (assisted by John Docherty) had taken over team affairs in February 1984 following the dismissal of Fred Callaghan with Brentford deeply embroiled in a relegation struggle. Although results improved considerably, the outcome of the season still went right to the wire and the crucial game against their fellow-strugglers arrived with Brentford sitting in 18th position in the table, two points above Scunthorpe who were occupying the final relegation place.

At the end of the afternoon, with the points having been secured, one name was on the lips of relieved Brentford supporters, as revealed in the Middlesex Chronicle’s match report …

… “Trevor Swinburne started the season hoping to win promotion with the Bees. Those hopes soon disappeared but Saturday’s outstanding performance – which included a penalty save – could well keep Brentford in the Third Division.

The likeable Geordie has had something of a personal nightmare since conceding four goals in the televised Milk Cup tie against Liverpool. An ever-present with Carlisle when they won promotion in 1982 and again last season, he decided to move south and drop a division because he felt he needed a new challenge. But after a good start with Brentford his form and his confidence suffered, particularly after his lapses against Liverpool. He lost his place following the home defeat by Wimbledon on Christmas Eve and Paddy Roche has done so well that Swinburne played just one game between then and Saturday.

He admits he lost heart for a while and when Frank McLintock arrived as manager he was more than a stone overweight. McLintock put him on a diet and he gradually regained his appetite for the game as he returned to his best weight.

For someone of his calibre, playing in the Midweek Football League for the reserves can be a demoralising experience. For a goalkeeper, it is particularly difficult to maintain sharpness, which made his display on Saturday all the more remarkable. He modestly says that his penalty-save in first-half injury time was an inspired guess – he dived low to his left to push away the well-struck spot-kick from Noel Parkinson, who once had a spell on loan with the Bees. He then did astonishingly well to parry a follow-up shot from Paul O’Berg and although Parkinson did eventually put the ball in the net, the “goal” was disallowed for offside.

At that stage, Brentford were clinging on desperately to a 3rd minute goal from Terry Rowe (his first for the Club). A draw would have kept Scunthorpe just two points adrift with a game in hand and just maybe that save meant the difference between relegation and survival?

Before collecting his well-earned man-of-the-match award from the Sponsors, Swinburne said. “I can’t really put my finger on the reason for my loss of form. My confidence went a bit and I had a spell out of the side. I put on some weight and I suppose my head went down a bit and my game suffered but I hope that’s all behind me now.”

It was not until Brentford’s second goal in the 70th minute that home fans could breathe a little easier. Tony Mahoney made the opening for Francis Joseph to score his 24th goal of the season and his 50th for Brentford. Four minutes later the impressive Bill Roffey completed the scoring when he raced 80 yards to get in position to turn in Joseph’s low cross.

It was the fourth home game in succession that Brentford had won by a three-goal margin – something they had never achieved before.”

Mark Croxford