Brentford and Derby County played out a pretty entertaining, end to end, nil-nil draw at the iPro Stadium on Tuesday evening – a game that fans of both teams will feel they could have won.
Without the suspended Harlee Dean, the much-changed Bees lined up with Bjelland and Egan at the heart of the defence, with Barbet slotting in at left back, while Sam Saunders was given a rare start in midfield, and Kaikai given the nod on the wing.
Derby will argue they enjoyed the lion’s share of dangerous action, especially in the first half when the Bees gave the ball away too often and struggled to get their counter-attacking clicking in the difficult, wet conditions… But after the break, Dean Smith would have been more content with the quality coming forward and, just like the impressive travelling fans, believed we should have nicked a win.
What I thought was a stone wall penalty was waved away when Romaine Sawyers was brought down in there area, however, the ref waved play on to the anger of the the visitors, who out-sung the home fans all evening. Derby supporters are clearly yet to be convinced by the return of Steve McClaren.
Derby had several cracking shots from distance, one curling just past the angle of post and bar, but we all had our hearts in our mouths with ten minutes to go when the chance of the game went begging and the Bees breathed a collective sigh of releif… A superb ball across the six-yard box evaded all attempts to connect, thankfully including the foot of the Rams’ striker lurking at the far post. Barbet’s desperate lunge had just done enough to put him off I think.
Scott Hogan rounded the keeper but could only find the side netting from an acute angle as Brenrford upped the ante, and in injury time, the Bees really pushed for a win, with most of the late action taking place in the Derby half. But it wasn’t to be.
As you will hear from the comments in the Pride of West London Beesotted post match podcast, Bees fans were happy with the point, but felt they deserved a little more from the game, while Derby fans trudged home frustrated with their side, who had once again failed to impress over the ninety minutes.
Over all, we will look back at the trip to Derby as a decent point, but there is certainly room for improvement ahead of the Bees’ 4000th League match this weekend against Barnsley.
Dave Lane
@beesotted100
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Happy with that point after Saturday. with that squad DCFC really should be doing way better but that’s their look out.
Please use your considerable reach to encourage everyone to turnw out for the 4.000th game. Who’d have thought that we’d see in this milestone in the upper reaches of the championship, and with a chance to push into the play off places? Nosebleed job innit!
Big / difficult game Saturday – make sure we are bang up for it.