After the final whistle the Beesotted Pride of West London podcast was straight into the job of picking through the wreckage with fans from both sides, before Keith Andrews gave his own verdict on a miserable night at the Stadium of Light. Here’s five things we took from a night that started with real hope but ended with a very long train journey home.
- Andrews called it “12 minutes of madness” – but it was worse than that.
Three goals conceded between the 26th and 39th minutes turned a game Brentford were competing in into one they simply couldn’t get back into. Andrews didn’t hide from it afterwards: “We wanted to progress in this competition. We’ve taken it very, very seriously in the way we’ve approached it. If we break down the performance, there’s a lot of good to take from it. We created multiple opportunities and should have scored more than we actually have. But the reality is we had a period in the game when we conceded three goals, which has cost us. Poor defending, poor mistakes and judgement. We need to learn from it.” More question marks than answers tonight as some alarm bells are starting to ring.
- The fans in the ground said much the same, just with more anger.
“We just weren’t quick enough on the ball,” said one fan. “We were sitting back where we could have come forward.” Another was blunter still: “We didn’t play the right team first off… do you think we underestimated them? Yeah, definitely.” JB’s view from the stats seat matched the mood – “lack of quality first half, individual mistakes… second half I actually thought was worse because we didn’t show too much intent really.” Nobody was arguing Brentford deserved anything from the game, and Laney said as much himself: “We didn’t do enough to assert ourselves, that was hugely disappointing!”
- Strength in depth got properly tested – and some big questions came out of it.
Billy put it plainly mid-podcast: this was the squad depth Brentford have supposedly been so proud of this season, actually being asked to deliver, and last night it didn’t. The Schuster-Collins centre-back pairing didn’t click, Diouf and Anthony couldn’t get the left side firing, and there were pointed doubts raised about Kayode’s form and confidence right now. Longer-running question marks over Dango Ouattara got another airing too, while concern about Igor Thiago’s dip in confidence in front of goal was a running theme of the whole episode – “something seriously wrong… I don’t know what it is.” He got a goal at the death, but it came from another aimless long ball up to him, exactly the kind of route-one football that frustrated everyone at the start of last season. Diouf cost how much?
- Goals from Thiago and Wilson gave the night its only real bright spots.
Igor Thiago finally got another goal, and Billy was as relieved as anyone: “I’m fed up with seeing in the press that he hasn’t scored a goal, so that’s one good thing out tonight – and to be honest, I think that’s the only thing.” Callum Wilson got his name on the scoresheet too, and Brentford’s rally from 3-0 down to 3-2 at least showed the character didn’t completely vanish – but the second goal came waaaaay too late and we spluttered all over the pitch.
- We miss out on a trip to Palace in the Quarters.
The quarter-final draw paired Crystal Palace with Sunderland, which means we miss out on a trip to Selhurst Park that could have been a realistic route to the semi-finals. Instead, the focus now needs to shift fully to Nottingham Forest on Saturday and then a tough trip to Brighton – Andrews and this squad have very little time to dwell on what might have been, though the fans are not happy that the last two performances have been so flat and disappointing. Brentford fans want a reaction. Come on you Bees.
Dave Lane
