Huddersfield Town v. Brentford
The John Smith's Stadium, 06/12/14 at 3.00pm
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The visit of Mark Warburton's Brentford side to Huddersfield on Saturday 6th December poses one of the more difficult tests of Chris Powell's reign to date. Brentford are on a fabulous run of form (5-0-1) that has seen them rise up to 3rd in the table, level on points with Ipswich in 2nd. Quite the rise for a promoted side. The Terriers, meanwhile, have struggled a little recently (1-2-3) and sit 19th, a full 13 points behind their visitors. A mismatch it maybe, a match it certainly is.
You can catch it live in the flesh, if you like. You can wait until the Football League Show and follow it with Steve Claridge and Liam Rosenior wittering some bobbins about it. You could even probably listen to the radio and find it. Steve Claridge played four games for Brentford. He also scored 16 goals fewer than Steve Bull from around 251 more games. Take your pick.
I used to listen to Brentford on the radio a fair bit back when I had Player/cared about football, and their commentary crew are rather good, though I remember being vexed at Danny Schofield being described as left-footed at one point, when he was clearly ambidextrous.
Who are Brentford?
The Bees hail from West London, and probably won't travel in huge numbers despite their recent form. They have enjoyed moderate success during their history, winning all three of the non-top flight divisions and achieving a best position of 5th in 1935/36 (behind Huddersfield in 2nd) in the season that Blackburn Rovers and Aston Villa, the only ever-present teams in the English top flight lost that status.
Its been a case of bobbing around the lower reaches for most of the time since then, but being home to a good many very good players - most of whom achieved renown elsewhere; think of Marcus Gayle and Hermann Hreidarsson as two examples that popped into mind straight away.
You may best know them from losing to Town in the playoffs in 1995 (they finished 2nd that season, any other year, they'd have gone up). You may best know them from beating Town in the playoffs in 2002. Playoffs, playoffs, playoffs. It always comes to this.
They've been on the rise for a little while now; promotion from League Two as champions was followed by a competitive spell in League One, another failed playoff campaign (the Bees have a history of such things) and eventually promotion last season. Since then, its been strength to strength stuff.
How do they play?
The Bees are a decent footballing side; the likes of Alan Judge and highly rated Spurs youngster Alex Pritchard particularly influential, while Andre Gray represents the biggest goal threat - he has seven this season, while Judge has eight assists; wingplay is a particular feature of their play, so expect the play to be rapid and use the whole pitch. They score goals, too, two or more in each of their last five games; Town's six game unbeaten home run will surely be tested.
Town meanwhile, favour a more defensive approach, looking to control play a little before unleashing their fearsome attacking threat. That looks like it will be missing Harry Bunny for a few weeks; whether that will entail Danny Ward coming in, or if Chris Powell will go 4-4-2 and play Grant Holt and Nahki Wells together is your guess.
Don't we know you?
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Jordan Rhodes is perhaps the most potent recent link between the two sides. Wee Jocky McRhodes spent a loan spell with Brentford before joining Town, scoring a hatful of goals for the Bees, before doing the same for the Terriers. He's at Blackburn now, so may possibly finish below both of his last two sides this season. He may not, of course.
Other men who have played for both teams include the likes of Robbie Simpson, James Spencer and Lionel Ainsworth, who all had loan spells at Griffin Park. Oh, and Fola Onibuje who played two games for each club and failed to score for either. Heady days. Heady days indeed.
Classic Match from the Past
Well, there's those playoff games I mentioned above, but those are so well known and have been gone over so many times before, that its probably worth looking at the Alan Lee game instead.
Alan had a bit of history with Brentford that you might not realise, scoring the goal against them that took Rotherham up into the now Championship back in 2001
It looks a little like the goal I saw him score for Town against Oldham a little while ago. Anyway. Brentford came to Town in 2012 and rather raced into a 0-2 lead under the stewardship of Uwe Rosler, back while he was still there. That was followed by a goalmouth melee in which the industrial form of Alan Alan Lee rather imposed himself on the (excellent, but now reserve) keeper Richard Lee, in a manner that would at least 9 times out of 10, cost him a free kick. For some reason, the referee was not so generous and allowed a goal, allowing Town back into the contest, a nettle they grasped with both hands, going on to win 3-2, courtesy of John McCombe and that man Jordan Rhodes.
“I don’t know what I can say without getting myself into trouble. The referee should have disallowed the goal. It completely changed the game,” said Rosler after the game. Alan Lee, I can assure you, is not a popular chappy in West London.
Other Stuff
I saw Brentford with the Hounslow Cup the other summer - they beat Bedfont Town right on the edge of Heathrow. That was the first time in years they'd worn their black and yellow Bee away kit that I suspect they'll be in on Saturday too. I remember insisting that the white numbers were wearing were completely illegible and that, especially given the normal colours of the side, they should be in red. Sure enough, come the start of the season, names and numbers were red. Fight the machine.
Brentford are on their way out of Griffin Park, by the way, I watched the council meeting that granted them planning permission for St George's, so we're getting to a point where the away version of this game might be the last ever visit to the famous old ground. I implore you to visit if you haven't already and I'll be there meeting a huge group of friends. I don't have many groups of friends, but I've got one in Brentford. They've always been good to me.
PREMATCH UPDATE
It is the Friday before the game and Mark Warburton has just been awarded the Manager of the Month for November. I have previously disproved the existence of a curse, and the comments about Brentford being bastard well dangerous above stand.
Team News
There are a few notable absentees for this one; James Vaughan, Joel Lynch, Joe Murphy and Harry Bunn won't play for Town through injury, though Sean Scannell may. and Scott Hogan and Alan McCormack both miss out for Brentford. As such, we're looking at Town in a 4-3-3 and Brentford in a 4-2-3-1, Who Scored have it like this - they probably won't be far wrong.
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What Have They Said?
Chris Powell said all of this "Pressure is always on whether you are at the top or at the bottom. I know we can get ourselves a result soon. We have seen it before in this division, but you can quickly turn it around and you have to stay calm."
Mark Warburton said this; “Huddersfield will be a strong test. With players like Grant Holt, Sean Scannell, Nahki Wells, Mark Hudson and Jacob Butterfield they are a talented team, and they have a very talented manager in Chris Powell. They are in a false position league-wise.”
No indication whether its false high or false low, though. We shall see.
What's Gonna Happen
I reckon Town will lose 0-2.
