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Beesotted contributor, Dan Suh, looks back at the events at Brisbane Road on Saturday and the numbers game that he called right pre-match.

In the euphoria of the win against Leyton Orient, I am delighted to be able to write this article to follow up from my pre-match post and my Fanstand appearance with the O’s fans. As I have said, I am an optimist. I make no apologies for predicting a Brentford win (although I did say a 2-1 win) as I don’t believe that it does tempt fate, and there is an undoubted feeling of smugness when I am proved right.

In my last post and on the Fanstand, I have started to make use of stats to back up my arguments. Certainly, stats cannot tell you everything, as emotion, attitude, the unforeseen, the unpredictability of football is what makes it such a beautiful game. However, it does point to trends and possible outcomes.

I said that it would be a tight affair. That Leyton Orient were going to create chances, but were going to allow us chances too. The fact that despite being the away team, we were going to enjoy good spells of possession. Unlike the Wolves game where I feared that they were too good defensively, we stood a very good chance of nicking a win.

But, leaving the stats aside, Leyton Orient looked like they are the ones who are running out of steam. Vincelot was a pale shadow of the player I saw earlier in the season at Griffin Park. Cox and Onubajo were stifled by Alan McCormack and Jake Bidwell. Getting past Tony Craig is not easy, and Mooney certainly has played better in his time. The midfield was, especially in the second half, won by Brentford and all of this, despite the utter utter ineptitude of a referee who kept making shocking decisions that will baffle me till the day I die.

Brentford, under Uwe, came under stick for concentrating on the opposition a little too much, and the squad rotation policy. But, the last week has seen Brentford utilise a number of players to keep them fresh for the Leyton Orient game, but more importantly, I truly believe that Warburton did tactically get it spot on for the first time in his tenure. Up until the Leyton Orient game, I believe that he has set up the team, and allowed the opposition worry about us.

It fell apart for the Wolves game and he had no plan B to instigate. Frankly, he failed (a bit harsh Dan! – Ed). However, against the O’s, we were more physical, more feisty, more aggressive than I’ve seen us all season, and that is what won us the game. Sure, we played some slick football at times, we never resorted to lumping upfield until we were simply clearing our lines towards the end of the game to relieve the pressure on us, and we created our fair share of chances.

But, Warburton had a plan. Quite possibly, the sending off galvanised the team even further and the lads demonstrated their character and desire to win the game by putting in heroic performances to keep Orient’s chances to a minimum, but even had we not had the sending off, we would have stifled them because Orient, in my opinion, didn’t have a plan B themselves.

They didn’t know how to handle the fact that despite not being a physical and aggressive team, we had set our stall out to be like that. They had enough to worry about Brentford in any case, but they didn’t expect us to be the way we were and Slade, for all his experience, failed to cope with it.

I’ll be honest and state that the lack of sour grapes from most O’s fans has been refreshing. Good losers, for the best part and I hope that the both of us go up next season. There’s no point even going through the penalty that should have been, or the fact that Judge was a whisker away from making it 2-0. The fact is that Warburton learnt from the Wolves game. He created a plan that no matter how many times Slade might have had us watched, he could not have expected us to give them a good old-fashioned roughing up.

From my point of view, Warburton has passed one of the most important tests of being a manager. And that is learning from past mistakes. He’s rotated the squad a little to keep things fresh. He’s learnt from the Wolves experience and showed respect to Leyton Orient by creating a plan for them. He’s demonstrated to Brentford fans that he does a lot more than send the team out and let the opposition worry about us. This season, it’s our time.

I don’t care about tempting fate. I know we have 11 games to go and I wouldn’t underestimate a single one of those games. However, the Leyton Orient game finally confirms my belief in promotion this season, and only a major catastrophe of biblical proportions will deny us now.

Dan Suh
@DanSuh_KF