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On the train back from London from Derby the dreaded question went out to the Beesotted crew:

“Anyone want to do the match report?”

The match report is one of those tasks .. it has to be done each week … but no one gets massively excited about doing it.

After what is normally a long day out … and a few beers .. it’s sometimes quite hard to go back and re-hash the 90 minutes on the pitch.

Naturally, the report is easier when Brentford have won. Always more difficult when they lose.

But for the past few seasons, even when the Bees had lost, there was always a light at the end of the tunnel … the loss or bad performance was a mere blip … knowing the following week, things would eventually get back on track.

That always made writing the report a lot easier.

There was deathly silence.

I guess it’s me then.

So on Sunday morning I sat for hours … going over the match in my head wondering exactly what I could put on paper.

My mind was complete blank.

I could not think of any positives from our match against Derby. Not one.

Normally we would at least come away from a 2-0 defeat saying

“Oh well at least Josh Clarke had a good match”

or

“Alan McCormack was great in the 2nd half”

But this match.

Nothing.

On the Beesotted Pride of West London post-match podcast this week, our football was described as “Mid-table Division 1” at best.

We were also described as going into “freefall”

That’s depressing enough as it is.

So I’ve decided  … I’m not going to talk about the match.

Trying to look on the positive front, it cannot get much worse than this.

Surely.

We undoubtedly have a decent set of players. We showed that up at ‘Boro and gave them a good game up at The Riverside – playing some excellent football at times.

What was lacking was the end result.

And the fact we have been inconsistent. Over the 90 minutes.

What we don’t seem to have is the glue to pull these players together.

And the direction.

I may be wrong.

We were ripped to pieces playing a  4-4-1-1 formation this weekend.

Was that because Carsley felt we didn’t have the personnel to play any other formation?

I have no idea.

At the moment the team looks lost at sea.

And I .. along with most of the fanbase .. am a tad confused

The fight is missing from the team.

The balance is obviously wrong – with even Lee Carsley admitting that we needed some more ‘physicality’ in the side.

At least Alan Judge and Harlee Dean had the decency to apologise to the 808 travelling fans on social media – saying that the performance was unacceptable.

They obviously feel our pain.

So where do we go from here? Surely the only way is up.

The fact is … wee have dropped a long long way from where we were in May.

But I’m hoping the rot and complacency doesn’t set in as it did with Wigan last season – a team who the previous season also lost in a playoff semi-final before suffering relegation because of mis-management.

Brentford have admitted they have made a catalogue of mistakes.

But on the plus side …. it’s only October.

Plenty of time to turn things around as long as the club learns from its mistakes are prepared – if necessary – to compromise to an extent in order to get over this blip.

As for next week’s game.

We’re playing Rotherham. Our first real 6 pointer of the season.

Maybe we’ll ask the question early .. well before a ball has been kicked.

“Anyone want to do the match report?”

Billy Grant
@billythebee99