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Beesotted regular Jim Levack shares his thoughts on the Brentford performance at The Etihad this weekend.

I bumped into a few chaps of a certain vintage in a pub a stone’s throw from Manchester Piccadilly station ahead of the game.
All wore the telltale lines and crows’ feet around their eyes that come with a lifetime of stress and smiles spent supporting their once unfashionable local club.
Most were veterans of nights in Bury and Rochdale. All were savouring the trip to the Etihad, made all the more sweet because of what they’ve seen before.

Few, apart from one or two a few pints further into their day, expected a repeat of the previous smash and grab. But all were adamant that their side would ‘turn up’.
That conviction was given a leg up when Wissa nodded the Bees ahead as the concourse late beer brigade were still making their way to their seats.
“Too early”, shouted an irate City fan pointing to his watch as the travelling fans goaded the home fans. He’d have struggled to find too many dissenters among us.
But what followed for the next 30 minutes was a watershed moment in the club’s history which, in the fullness of time, could be seen as turning the page on a new chapter.
Of course, things can go wrong in football. Bad luck, injuries and poor business decisions can alter destiny. But if ever a game said we are about to step up, it was this one.
Brentford were quite simply spellbinding, playing calmly out from the back with precision paired with invention and flair. Arguably the best club side on the planet were rattled.
The press was intelligent and the creativity in terms of balls between the lines was crisp, inventive and, at times, telepathic. A newcomer to the game might have been forgiven for thinking Thomas Frank’s side were the all-conquering title holders.
We could, maybe should, have been three up by the time Wissa – whose understanding with Mbeumo is at times frightening – was cynically taken out of the game on half-way.
Just a yellow from referee Darren Bond, who seemed overawed to be sharing the same patch of grass as the unstoppable force that is Erling Haaland.
That moment probably didn’t change the game, but it certainly didn’t help Brentford’s cause. But for the fans who’d made the trip and stayed behind at the end in numbers to applaud their side off, it didn’t matter.
They’d just seen a Brentford side go toe to toe with one of Europe’s powerhouses, and here’s the best bit… there was no sign of an inferiority complex that we might have seen before.
The presence and leadership quality of Sepp Van den Berg has filled a void at the back not seen since the departure of Pontus Jansson. That has also brought a belief that we can and will mix it with the big boys… on our terms.
The benchmark has now been set and although every game brings different challenges, it’s a dilemma that those blokes in the pub never thought they’d have to consider.

Jim Levack

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