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Brentford ended the season on a real high thanks to an impressive 5-1 win at Huddersfield – goals from Sergi Canos, Lasse Vibe, John Swift, and another brace from Scott Hogan, brought down the curtain down in style – fans are already looking forward to the start of the next campaign.

Seven wins, a draw and just one solitary defeat from the past nine games also saw The Bees finish in ninth place, which considering the roller-coaster ride we’ve all been on this season, is a truly remarkable achievement. We have seen some players really come of age and grow in stature and confidence, as well as blooding some youth.

It has been great to see some of the more maligned players start to shine with the weight of the world off their shoulders – as well as witnessing how adaptable some of the fringe players can be when players like Judge and McCormack aren’t around.

Brentford fans travelled up to Yorkshire in decent numbers and there was a party atmosphere most of the afternoon, especially in the second half, as the Bees cranked up the pressure on The Terriers’ defence, but the mood was set fair after just 21 seconds when Sergi Canos put the Bees one-up with the first attack of the game – the Liverpool loanee stealing in to nut-meg the ‘keeper.

In truth the game didn’t really liven up until Huddersfield equalised early in the second half after a quickly-taken free-kick caught the Bees’ rear-guard napping, but if anyone thought Huddersfield would then go on and win the game, they were very mistaken.

Scott Hogan, who had uncharicteristically missed two first half chances, got back to scoring ways almost immediately after the leveller, then rounded the keeper to make it 3-1 shortly afterwards – both from superb KK through-balls. Hogan, who is clearly not quite ready for a full 90 minutes, was replaced by Vibe who was quick to get in on the goals himself, smashing the ball home from a tight angle.

To be fair to the Huddersfield fans housed behind the goal next to the Bees they continued to get behind their side with flag waving and all sorts, but even they quietened down when John Swift lashed home a fifth of the afternoon… and there could have been more!

But what a way to finish the season off – all the pre-Easter negativity of angst seems a million miles away now – and the tiresome doom mongers and trolls have been left pondering why its best to give players a chance to shine rather than writing them off after five minutes.

As you will see in the Beesotted video, we caught up with Scott Hogan briefly after the game as he made a dash for it to spend the evening with his family – not only did he tip The Bees for promotion next season, but there were also rumours doing the rounds that he may be in line for a surprise Euro 2016 call-up with Eire – Roy Keene’s match scouting report would surely have mentioned Scott’s name. Personally, I think the player needs to relax over the summer months, to stay fit and get ready for a goal-filled 2016/17, but maybe a little trip to France could be useful too!

The atmosphere back in the pub was fantastic with a real sing-song mood – a lot of Brentford fans have put in some serious miles over the past nine months, ourselves included, so it was great to let our hair down and take advantage of the friendly vibe around town.

And as you will hear from the Pride of West London Beesotted post-match podcast, one or two new ditties were unveiled during the day, we also bumped into the linesman from the match, who shared some insightful thoughts on the game.

We expected a succession of new signings to be unveiled in the coming weeks – with Walsall, Gillingham and Oxford rages firmly in our sights to be announced when the transfer window opens on June 1st – so it is unlikely there will be too many dull moments over the summer, but it was certainly great to wave goodbye to 2015/16 on a high.

Dave Lane
@beesotted100