Brentford climbed to fifth in the Championship table yesterday with a superb second half performance at Griffin Park to clinch a win double over The Millers.
With the home stands packed – and the away end deserted – Brentford got off to a stuttering start against a well organised Rotherham side.
Steve Evan’s team played a consistently high line and started to dominate a Brentford midfield missing the zip and verve of Alan Judge, who was absent with a knee injury.
With the wind putting pressure on Brentford’s defence, the visitors managed to puncture our back line on a number of occasions but, fortunately, the finishing of Matt Derbyshire did not match his movement. In fact it was woeful.
A tactical re-think by David Weir saw Dean and Tarkowski close the worrying gap between them, and in turn, Brentford started to tighten the noose on three points.
Brentford’s best first half chances were created and executed by Alex Pritchard who saw a wonderful chipped shot and a clipped free kick both end up narrowly wide of the goal.
After the break Brentford upped the ante with Toumani Diagouraga dominating the midfield and Dougie taking up some more advanced positions.
The goal came from a David Button shanked pass to Bidwell who found Jota at the back post. The Spaniard’s shot was blocked but the ball span in the air only to be thumped home on the turn by Stuart Dallas with a finish that deserved to win a football match.
Other chances came and went, Gray saw a one-on-one saved with Jota’s follow up deflected over the bar. Alex Pritchard then hit the post with a measured drive from distance as The Bees sought to double their lead.
Rotherham kept toiling away and had a good chance to equalise on the dying minutes of the game with David Button producing a fantastic diving save from a header to preserve a much needed clean sheet.
Fans in the pub after the match speaking on the Beesotted podcast acknowledged it definitely was a game of two halves and Brentford were lucky to not have been 3 down at the break.
The Bees now travel to two in form sides with Brighton and Norwich filling the next two Saturday’s fixtures, followed by Middlesborough at Griffin Park. A challenging run of games but we are more than capable of retaining our position in the table if we play to potential.
The injury to Judge is reportedly short term and we still have Lewis Macleod to add to our talented squad once fit. The talk in the pub was again of the need for a striker to support Gray, but there are suggestions that this may be resolved soon too.
Condorman
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