Brentford Season Review 2005/06 - August

Last updated : 05 July 2006 By Smallsy
After losing out to Sheffield Wednesday in the Playoff Semi Finals in May of 2005 Brentford suffered a mixed pre season in the lead up to the new season.


Defeated in two of their pre season fixtures, Brentford's small squad looked to be suffering with battles which they faced on the pitch.

Off the field, the club managed by Martin Allen released some of the older players in John Salako and Deon Burton bringing in fresh talent in the former of Junior Lewis, Sam Tillen, Olafur Ingi Skulason, Paul Brooker, DJ Campbell and Ricky Newman who was later named as club captain.

The biggest signing of the Summer was the return of Lloyd Owusu who was greatfully recieved by the supporters.

Brentford's first task of the season was to battle newly promoted Scunthorpe who had breezed their way through League Two in the previous season. New signing DJ Campbell started on the bench but Skulason and Brooker both started.

The game was a battle for the Bees who eventually won through in the second half with goals from Jay Tabb and DJ Campbell who netted a penalty on his debut.

Brentford were on the up and continued their winning start in their first away game of the season. Facing Chesterfield at the Recreation Ground they were 1-0 up through Sodje but pegged back ten minutes later. Two goals in five minutes from Rankin were enough to send Brentford top of the League after the first two fixtures of the season.

Next up Brentford stuttered to a 1-0 defeat due to a mistake from Stuart Nelson letting in a long range effort from Michael Cummings. Unfortunately for the Bees Olafur Skulason who started with a bang suffered a serious knee injury as was not able to perform for the Bees during the rest of the season.

Brentford got back on track in their next game at Griffin Park, defeating Tranmere, who were also playoff losers in 2004/05, 2-0. A great home performance showed the power of the Griffin Park crowd with Tabb and Hutchinson both finding the net.

The clubs first game in cup competition turned out to be a complete disaster as Martin Allen messed with his team line up. A 5-0 defeat was not only embarassing for the travelling fans but the players were determined to pull back a situation away from home which threatened to spiral out of control.

Their next game was at Oakwell, where they gained an impressive 1-1 draw with Barnsley, Owusu scoring his first goal since returning to Brentford. In their final game of the month Brentford put in a disapointing performance against freshly relegated Gillingham who through Neil Harris took the lead. Commonly used as a substitute in the later stages of the season Alex Rhodes netted for the bees late in the game to show the power of the squad system.

A good start to the season followed by a few wobbles in the later stages and a bad defeat in the Carling Cup set Brentford up with a good base for an impressive season.