After a disappointing draw against bottom club Carlisle, BillytheBee warns against complacency in our fight for promotion.
This is going to be a strange season for the fans. I can feel it now.
I remember the feeling at the beginning of last season. As we ventured off to Germany. An enthusiastic young squad mixed with fans. Supporters and players hopeful but no-one really knew what lay ahead of them really. It was like an unmapped adventure and the there was something magical about the vibe.
This season, things feel much different. The fan/player thing never really happened in Germany as the team knuckled down to serious pre-season conditioning. The expectation bar rose massively due to our near-miss last season. On top of that, the management had dug in and strengthened our squad with a number of quality players.
On paper we’re a far stronger proposition now than when we took the field against Yeovil – even with all the injuries. The feeling this season is less of ‘exciting discovery’ and more of ‘been-there-before charted territory’.
It’s early days yet. So why do I sense a feeling of déjà vous?
Brentford came into the Carlisle game off the back of a 5-0 defeat against Derby. Except they didn’t quite. Only three players from the Derby game (El Alagui, Barron and Saunders) made the starting eleven today and only one of the Derby team started last weekend.
The theory for us getting humiliated in the ‘previously-named but maybe to be renamed’ Worthless Cup was that we were resting our players for the league. On this showing, maybe they should have given all the players a run-out to keep them match fit in an attempt to maintain some sort of fighting spirit.
Carlisle came into this game having conceded 22 goals in their previous 6 games – with most teams managing to knock at least 4 goals past them. Naturally, such an abysmal record can’t continue forever. But even the most optimistic of Carlisle fans feared the worst before this match with Keith Mincer fanzine describing “abject performances” and “shambolic defending” as the mainstay to Carlisle’s downfall over the past 12 months – predicting Brentford to score 3 or 4 against them.
So what went wrong?
Carlisle had strengthened their rocky defence with the signing of Troy Archibald-Henville from Swindon in midweek and he put in a solid display to keep the Bees’ attack at bay.
They came with one game-plan. To defend to the hilt. They worked hard pressing our players from the off – stopping us from playing ‘our game’. The game was littered with free kicks as the Carlisle players bullied their Brentford counterparts all afternoon and the Bees fought back. Only to be expected from a team who was shipping goals left right and centre.
So why were we unable to, once again, deal with this? Carlisle haven’t been the first team to use this strategy and certainly won’t be the last.
With the enthusiastic El Alagui leading the attack, the Bees failed to create many clear-cut chances in the first 45 minutes with Barron coming close shooting at the keeper and Donaldson, El Alagui and Saunders all having half chances to give the Bees the lead.
Brentford had the lion’s share of the possession (63% to be precise), as one would expect when playing at home. But there was no bite. Donaldson once again was playing like a man with his mind focused elsewhere – a shadow of the 24-goal striker from last season.
An ineffective El Alagui was substituted at half time and replaced by Grigg and that made some difference.
Chances for Barron, Craig, Forshaw and Grigg went amiss. Carlisle were happy do sit back, defend and hit back with the very few chances they created on the break. And they almost took the lead when a free kick, heading for the top corner, was athletically saved by Button.
Then out of the blue, Brentford were reduced to 10 men and with that sending off, any chance of them gaining 3 points all but evaporated. Barron, who was having a decent game, was caught in possession by Amoo. The ex-Tranmere striker, who has scored 4 goals already this season, made a bee-line for the goal and was brought down by Craig who received an automatic red card.
The reshuffle saw Reeves surprisingly coming on for Saunders, when most thought Fillo might make an appearance instead …. or Kev O’Connor fill the centre back slot. McCormack was moved into defence.
It has to be noted that Hayes – who didn’t play against Derby … and who played well as a stand-in holding midfielder in the cup game against Dagenham – wasn’t even on the bench fuelling rumours of his immediate departure.
Despite their advantage on the pitch, Carlisle decided not to go-for-it but were quite happy sitting back and soaking up the pressure – hitting us on the break when they could be bothered. Maybe after seeing opposition teams’ strike forces come down and bang four and five goals past them week in and week out, they made an assessment on our team and decided that this approach would pay the best dividends for them. And they weren’t wrong.
Diagouraga had a goal mysteriously disallowed ten minutes from time after a goalmouth mellee. A Harlee Dean header into the box resulted in keeper Gillespie dropping the ball under pressure from Donaldson – who was then wrongly accused of fouling him.
But with Reeves, Donaldson and Forshaw all missing half-chances, the writing was on the cards as Brentford squandered yet another great opportunity to really stake a claim on this division.
Carlisle midfielder Paul Thirlwell spoke to @beesotted after the game (check the video) and described the point as “a fair result”.
Uwe Rosler described the performance as lethargic.
Harlee Dean described the Gillingham game as “points dropped”. If El Alagui popping up to score a 90th minute winner away from home is points dropped then how would he articulate being unable to score against not even the worst defence our division but in all four football leagues as well as the conference (premier league)?
The question on many people’s mind on leaving the stadium was – if the goal had been allowed everyone would have forgotten about the performance? Probably
What is worrying is the increasing use of the same old cliches after every mediocre performance. A few heard over the last few weeks include:
“Donaldson takes a while to get going every season”
“The away team came here with one game plan. To stop us playing”
“We have been hit by injuries and can’t play our usual game”
“The sending off changed the game and made things difficult”
“The new squad is taking time to gel”
“We were reduced to playing their game”
“The referee didn’t help things”
“It’s still early days”
“A point away from home is a good result. I’ll take that any day”
Week in and week out we hear these and we have grown to accept them. But the reality is, unfortunately we’re not ‘poor little olde Brentford’ any more. We have assembled a big, talented squad. Our boast before the season started was that we had three quality players for every position on the park.
We should be able to cope with any situation by now. Injuries. Sendings offs. Suspensions. Pressing us high up the pitch. Pressing us low up the pitch. Tactic changes. Passing game. Long ball game. Bullying. Opposition ‘bus parking’. The whole lot.
We should have a game plan for everything. Or as I said at the beginning, it all starts to become a bit of déjà vous …. The olde Groundhog Day … Like we’ve been here before.
The reality is we are in a division where Orient have a 100% record; Peterboro are scoring goals for fun; Wolves have pots of cash and other teams are snapping on our heels including Bradford who we play next weekend.
OK the reality is it’s not doom and gloom. It’s very early days. We’re unbeaten. We’re 4th. Tranmere were top of the table at this time last year and ended up not even at the races. It’s definitely a marathon not a sprint.
However, it’s important that we don’t rest on any laurels. Early warning flares have been fired. We can’t be so arrogant as to ignore them.
Yes the referee was poor. Yes Carlisle did come and park the bus. Yes injuries did change the look of our side. Yes the sending off changed the game.
But we’re not the only promotion-chasing side who has to deal with these issues.
And if we have learned any lessons from last season, we know that we cannot accept these excuses as our reason for failure any more. Our performance should be 100% in our own hands as we have developed a side that should be able to handle any eventuality.
If Yeovil can manage it last season on 1/4 of our resources, then we have absolutely no excuse.
Beesotted has been accused more than once of continually watching games through rosé tinted glasses – something that we dispute. Showing support for the team whilst also having a balanced opinion coupled with a positive outlook is distinctly different than thinking the whole world is rosy every single day of the week.
We are under no illusion that the game-plan has changed dramatically this season. And there is no longer any space for complacency. In a strange way, the scenario we find ourselves in is very ‘un-Brentford’. It almost makes us feel uncomfortable because, for once, we can’t hide behind a wall of excuses any more.
Our stall has been set out by the powers to be. It’s promotion or bust. And if we are serious about finishing in the top two places in this division then we have to be honest and accept that this performance was not acceptable. That we should have beaten Port Vale. That Gillingham were there for the taking. And probably that we could have dealt with Walsall even better. It’s picking up points in games like these which ensures that we don’t heap all our expectation on players like Trotta at the end of the season.
And we have to be realistic about the factor that ties all the above results together – the fact that we still seem to be having great difficulty in converting our vast amounts of possession into goals.
Next weekend we play Bradford – a team with an inverse theory to ours about playing a full team in the Worthless Cup – who got to Wembley as well as achieved promotion last season. That should be interesting.
The Sheffield Telegraph felt that Bradford, who gave Sheffield United a good whalloping last weekend, are a good side but not quite as good as Brentford
So on paper an away win is surely on the cards?
As Brentford fans, we’ve got to know over the years that football isn’t quite as simple as that …
Or is it???
BillytheBee
@billythebee99
United: Gillespie, Potts, Black, Livesey, Archibald-Henville, Thirlwell, Berrett, Noble, Robson, Amoo, Miller. Subs: Fleming, Guy, Gillies, Beck, Symington, Lynch, Feely.
Brentford: Button, Logan, Barron, Dean, Craig, Forshaw, Saville, McCormack, Saunders, El Alagui, Donaldson. Subs: Fillo, Bonham, O’Connor, Grigg, Dallas, Diagouraga, Reeves.
Attendance: 6,035 (325 away fans)
