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BillytheBee returns from Rotherham with his tail between his legs as Brentford took a bye in their match in South Yorkshire .. And he looks forward to the trio to Oldham

Brentford returned from Yorkshire with ‘nil point’ after being despatched by an in-form Rotherham at the New York Stadium. Fortunately for the Bees, a late equaliser from Oldham at Brisbane Road ensured that damage limitation was in full effect as Brentford were able to maintain a decent cushion over their East London rivals whilst, at the same time, notching one more game off in the race to Mark Warburton’s revised 94 point promotion target.

A visit to The Bridge pub before the match to visit the mural of the Arthur Wharton (the first black professional football association player in the world) was the probably the highlight of the evening for some Bees fans as Brentford never really got their swerve on in South Yorkshire that evening.

Rotherham came into this game full of confidence on the back of a 13 match unbeaten run and it showed. Brentford had only lost 1 league game in 25 before this match, to top of the table Wolves, so on paper this was looking like it was to be an even battle.

However, Rotherham came out of the traps firing in all cylinders and when Judge up-ended James Tavernier in the penalty area in the 13th minute, Kieran Agard stepped up to score Rotherham’s 10th penalty awarded this season sending the KC Recycling stand into spasms of delight. The Bees struggled to find their way back from that early set back.

Two more excellently taken goals from Agard and Vuckic ensured that Brentford were to take no major part in this one-sided contest instead leaving to lick their wounds and regroup for battle at the weekend.

Just like the Wolves game, the goal seemed to knock the stuffing out the Bees. They had no answer for the energy and passing play of Rotherham. With Reeves in for the crocked Saville and Forshaw playing through with a long standing injury, the Bees were not able to dominate in midfield nearly as much as they have done in recent games – their usual spark and creativity was missing.

Judge was not having his best of games – a testament to how influential he has been since he arrived from Blackburn Rovers that we notice badly when he fails to create problems for the opposition defence. Brentford struggled to contain and match a lively and skilful Rotherham side.

It was almost as if they were suffering a hangover from all the energy and passion exuded in the Coventry and Orient games. Other then a couple of lively spells, the Bees looked knackered and short of ideas – only creating one decent half chance of note on goal.

This is not to take anything away from a Rotherham side who, to be fair, had done their homework stopping us being able to get any grip on the game.

Being philosophical, we knew deep down we weren’t going to win all our remaining games. The objective was always to get over the line. And just like we did against Wolves, we suffered a big defeat against a promotion rival which we now need to dust ourselves down from and move on.

Brentford may not lose many times this season but when we lose, we do it good. A 3-0 loss is probably indicative of Brentford’s ‘sh!t or bust’ attitude to games. Despite going one and two goals down, Brentford still stuck to their guns and tried to play football to open Rotherham up – only this time it didn’t work.

But the law of averages shows that the ‘sh!t or bust approach’ has worked 24 times in the last 4 months as we have lost just twice in 26 games. We can’t win them all. It’s a numbers game. However, the probability of getting a positive result with this approach is still stacked very much in our favour. We have to now move on to the next game and start again.

With Rotherham and Preston’s decent late run of form, we would be foolish to discount them for any late automatic promotion run-in. But the reality is, and it’s a cliché, Brentford’s fate is very much in their own hands. For any of the teams below Brentford in the table to overtake them and nab the automatic promotion spot, it will take a serious about-turn in results from the Bees.

The clock is ticking and Orient have 7 games to stake their claim a place in the championship. Brentford have 9 games. We need 5 more wins to pretty much guarantee promotion. If we get 5 wins, Orient need 6 (bar any draws. That starts to confuse things).

On paper, our result against Rotherham may look disappointing. But it’s already forgotten by most in the TW8 area. The bigger picture says we’re still well on track for automatic promotion.

Brentford have big three games ahead of them against Oldham, Sheffield Utd and Notts County. If they can notch up two more wins out of those matches towards Warburton’s end of season target then personally .. I would be a very happy man.

BillytheBee
@billythebee99