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I can’t be the only one who has had premonitions about Marcello Trotta scoring the winning goal at Wembley on Sunday – it seems that all Brentford’s planets have re-aligned after ‘that’ penalty miss against Doncaster – with coincidence and irony combining to negate previous bad fortune it would appear.

Marcello’s Brentford career has seen as many twists and turns as the Bees’ season itself – important goals and critical assists against Chelsea, Sheffield United and Swindon Town jump out – but there have also been times when he’s been hauled off at half-time with a flea in his ear.

But the way he’s bounced back from the Donny nightmare has been a credit, not only to the young Italian himself, but also to the club for handling the situation with such professionalism and respect, as well as the fans for seeing the bigger picture. The ovation he received when substituted in the play-off match at Griffin Park will live long in the memory.

I’ll also always remember the look of fear and trepidation etched across his face as the Beesotted crew walked over to him as he arrived at the Big Red Ball… our intentions were wholly good obviously and we held out our hands to offered some sort of consolation, as did many other fans that night… Yes, we’d all dearly love to change that moment in history where he refused to give Kevin O’Connor the ball, but we move on, we have to.

Uwe Rosler spoke briefly about Trotta after the Swindon penalty shot-out, saying: “I don’t really want to single anyone out after that, but a lot of players would have struggled to cope with what Marcello Trotta went through after the Doncaster game. Today was a defining moment in his career.”

And in today’s Evening Standard the Fulham loanee looks back at the past few weeks and reflects: “You feel very disappointed [after the Doncaster game] and you want to give something back to the team and the fans… The supporters have been great, even after the Doncaster game they have been great in supporting the team and me… We have got another game to go. I think the lads have put in a great effort. They have done unbelievably well. As a team, I think they are great.” There are also hints that he is interested in signing for Brentford full-time next season.

If selected, we can only hope that the desire to ‘give something back’ that he speaks of extends to finding the net at least once against Yeovil Town and setting up a few for his team-mates.

Dave Lane