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V

Brentford v Town
EFL Championship
Saturday 11th March 2015
Griffin Park,
The Very Far West End of Larndan Tarn as far as The Chamionship is concerned.
TW8 0NT.

Having seen the pitch that Man U are playing on in the European Minor Colleges and Universities League on Thursday night in Russsia, all arguments about the state of our pitch are off, and we are playing away this week and next in any case and then we've got a week off if you hadn't noticed.

Intro

Town head back down to that there Larndan Tarn on Saturday afternoon to the shadows of the M4 in possibly an even less glamourous part of Wes' Larndan than even QPR are in. Kew Gardens on their doorstep is a vital and very pleasant lung in an area that's as close to major road and rail infrastructure in Larndan as Wassall is in the Midlands along with all the crap and pollution in the air that comes with it.


In Griffin Park they have another old Subbuteo style ground and as I mentioned last season, and Marco the season before (wherefore art thou Marco?) and maybe many did before that, somewhat like QPR, they have plans to build a new'un just up the road. Unlike QPR, however Brentford are far more likely to get a shovel in the ground sooner rather than just wishing for someone with a magic shovel to come along and magically start digging later.

Extra, extra. read all abar' 'i'

They do need to get a shift on though because they are now well over the Championship's 2 season limit for replacing standing terraces with seats. If they were to be forced to do it, it would cost them twice in terms of fitting them and reducing their capacity, but news broke late on Tuesday that the Sports Ground Safety Authority has given them permission to retain the standing area's with the new stadium build finally about to start. It's also reported they will groundshare with London Irish Rugby Union Club. How will they ever play football on a pitch shared with a rugby team? What are they thinking?    

Town fans will be sat or stood, or mostly stood and stood in The Wendy House, the compact two tier stand at the west end of the ground otherwise known as The Brook Road Stand.




I recall going a few season back when we were stood on what was then the open terrace at t'other end of the gound. At the front of the North Stand there was an obnoxious little snot of a kid who insisted on throwing the ball at Town players as hard as he could whenever they came over for a throw in and he got his hands on it. Eventually Town's players got the nearby Stewards involved to calm him down. I have to wonder, did he ever grow up?

Pain in the arse in the stand at Brentford

Pretty much in the same seat as far as I can recall.

We lost 3-0 I think and missed the first 2 goals thanks to a mate who hadn't read about the closures that weekend on the Tube and we arrived half way into the first half.

Meet the Manager/Head Coach


When he was massive  

Dean Smith was brought in from t'Wassall lads on the 30th November 2015 after Marinus Dijkhuizen didn't exactly set the Brentford world on fire in a 9 game spell at the start of that season. This followed the departure of Mark Warburton who failed to see eye to eye with The Chairman (would never happen at ours that)  . Lee Carsley stepped in for 10 games in the interim. His main affiliation during his playing career and fledgling coaching career was Orient. So far he has been in charge at Wassall and Brentford and seems to be carving himself a reputation for being a safe pair of hands. (Take note Deano just in case, whether you can get him back to Yorkshire any sooner than the 10:00am Monday morning train from King's Cross is another matter). Smith is another manager, however, who is finding out that as soon as he gets his team going forward and up the table then his Chairman, Matthew Benham, goes and sells his best players. One of 'em Scott Hogan, who might have turned out for Villa the other night but for an ankle injury picked up last month at, er, Newcastle is a prime example. Well, it's one way of making a master gambler's Moneyball theory work.

If they aren't hitting the play-off's as often as they maybe would like then they are certainly making some brass out of it. Last season they sold Andre Gray to Burnalee for north of £10 million. In total they had nearly £22 milion in player sales and brought in just short of £9 million of replacement talent. This season Hogan went to Villa for the best part of £9 million on the last day of the January transfer window, heading sales of just over £12 million and bringing in around £4 million of new players this season. So that's around £21 million profit coming into the club (not counting undisclosed fees) whereas over the same period Town have made about £6 million overall profit, from the sales of Butterfield, Coady, Smithies and Lynch balanced off by the lads we brought in last Summer, mostly from Germany along with Kyle Dempsey and Jordi Hiwula the season before, both of whom are currently out on loan.

Main Innies and Outies over the last 2 seasons(transfermarkt.co.uk)



transfermarkt.co.uk values both clubs squads at around £20 million for current market value.

Maybe once Brentford finally shift their backsides into their new 20,000+ stadium they can get more serious about keeping some of that expensive talent for another promotion push, if they can get close to filling it regularly? No doubt their Chairman will have some innovative offers to put bums on seats for the first season or so. Also looking at those numbers, it's no wonder Deano wants to see a better return on investment from the Town Academy with only Smithies coming through our system from our major sales in the last 2 seasons.

Form Guide.



After stuffing us at home in the last game of the season last time around, thanks to our players standing around ball watching instead of gegenpressing, a refreshed Town squad, back from a few night's living on an island or 3 in Sweden, surprised Brentford and us with a 2-1 win that was more emphatic than the scoreline suggests in our first game of the season.


I'm sure there's an official version of that somewhere.

Town went on to win 8 of our next 11 games and were top the table for the most part until Wendies and Both Ends knocked us off our lofty perch. Brentford had a patchy start but were good enough for a top 6 place until around the same time when a poor run of 9 games with only one win dropped them into the lower half of the division. Since then 7 wins, 4 draws and 5 defeats have pushed them back up to mid-table obscurity though recently they have beaten Wendies away, Rotherham at home, drawn with Ipswich and also beat Forest 2-3 away on Tuesday night.  

Town meanwhile, after winning for fun for a while have recently drawn with Barnsalee, lost at home to another piss poor (or bent??) ref and Newcastle and our reserves have drawn one and lost one against a team that spent 100x more brass than our first team let alone our reserves in the FA Cup. We got a Brucey bonus on Tuesday night by beating Vanilla and The Cabbage Patch Grandad at home 1-0.



Head-2-Head

There's always goals in these games - well recently anyway. You have to go back to 2009 for the last goalless draw. It's been 8 games since we last had a draw in this fixture and prior to the win back in August, Brentford had hammered us 3 times on the trot. We all know about the play-off matches down in the lower divisions so I don't really need to go there again do I? (Have a look at some previous threads, they are on here somewhere - Marco's thread from a couple of season's back -http://www.sportsbabble.co.uk/thread-1414.html). Despite the places and points between us, we know there are no gimme's in this division and any points we win are welcome as those around us continue to pick up points too.





Who to watch (if they play)

I doubt it will be many of these


By 'eck - there's some familiar names on that team sheet.  
Including this fella who wove most of his magic just down the road but finished his career at Griffin Park.

Stan Bowles - The Grauniad

A sad read really when all is considered.  

Scott Hogan is still their top scorer on 14, but now he's gone to Villa, Dane, Lasse Vibe

and Spaniard, Jota

are picking up the scoring mantle, with the pair being responsible for the 3 goals at Forest on Tuesday night, but goals can come from anywhere in this squad.

In the Naughty Boys corner, Harlee Dean

at centre back is most likely to get on the wrong side of the ref but only Lasse Vibe has picked up 2 yellows in one game with no straight reds.

Starting Line-up's from Tuesday



For Town - we won't start the same 11 as Tuesday - we just know that. More changes than goals scored is a safer bet.

Pints'n'Peas

Brentford is renowned for having a huge variety of pubs all within walking distance. Sadly, Griffin Park no longer has a pub on every corner, however there is plenty of choice for anyone who wants a pre-match drink. All pubs usually welcome all away fans and Brentford fans happily mingle with away supporters. The closest to pubs to Griffin Park are: The Griffin, New Inn, Princess Royal on 3 of the 4 corners of the gound, The Royal Horseguardsmen, Watermans Arms, The Beehive, Brewery Tap, The Kings Arms and The Magpie and Crown. Across the A4 there is The Globe and The Lord Nelson. All these pubs are a short walk (less than ten minutes) from Griffin Park.
Read more at http://www.brentfordfc.co.uk/fans/First_...fem1vDi.99

The Royal Oak on the 4th corner of the ground sadly pulled its last pints back in 2015.

Travel News

Those travelling by train, from Kings Cross or Euston tis suggested to take the Victoria Line to Vauxhall then South West Trains from Vauxhall to Brentford. Allow about an hour.

tfl routes
The above link may or not work properly depending on time of day and whether or not someone at tfl has got his or her finger out and fixed it.

Potentially Gunnersbury or Kew Gardens on the Tube will also get you close but there are closures that could affect your journey. Note there are no services again on the Circle, District, Hammersmith & City or Metropolitan lines through King's Cross or Euston this weekend so the best plan is to head towards Old Father Thames before heading west.

You can read more in here with fans views on local hostelries, driving directions, parking etc. footballgroundguide

Remaining Fixtures

In 12th place, 21 points behind Town and 15 behind Wendies, it would take a remarkable run of results for Brentford to join the race for the top 6, however they have plenty of games to play against opposition that are in and around it. Including ourselves 5 of their remaining games can directly affect the final play-off positions. They can also affect the relegation race with 4 games to play against those with their backsides on or around the trap the door.



Although Town have now played all our games against the current top 6, we still have to play against the 4 teams just below the current top 6 with 3 of those at home and only Derby away. We also have 4 to play against the bottom 8 but as we well know, some of those sides can suddenly turn the form book upside down in the run in. Cardiff looked to be making a late push for the top 6 but they have not won in their last 3, they are on the same points as Brentford and I think both will likely finish up around where they are now.