Although we have had a pretty good record over the West Country side it would have been a brave Brentford fan who would have predicted this outcome that's for sure.
After our defeat against Oldham in midweek manager Steve Coppell rung the changes as out went the departing Gavin Mahon to be replaced at right back by Michael Dobson.The bench also saw changes as in came Gottskalksson and Danny Boxall,after a long absence through injury.
Given City's aspirations to gain automatic promotion it was vital that they made a fast start in order to encourage another large,expectant crowd at the Gate and so it proved as the Robins dominated early proceedings.They might have taken the lead on 5 minutes when good play in the midfield saw the ball fed into Brian Tinnion on the left.His cross was met by the head of Lee Peacock whose header deceived Paul Smith and seemed to be heading into the net.Fortunately the ball hit the left hand post and was hacked away to safety by Dobson.On the 10 minute mark another great chance for City went begging as Thorpe's powerful shot was acrobatically beaten away to safety by Smith in the Brentford goal.
It took some considerable time for the Bees to get any kind of foothold in the game as the City midfield,inspired by the always seemingly excellent Brian Tinnion,threatened at times to completely overrun their Brentford counterparts.Fortunately they managed to gain some momentum towards the end of the half and had a chance to take the lead on 38 minutes when good interplay between Rowlands and Burgess saw the ball played into Stephen Hunt in the area but his effort was smartly saved by Phillips low to his left.The Bees managed to ride out the remainder of the half without further incident and would have been the happier of the two sides to go at half time level.
I have absolutely no idea what manager Steve Coppell said to the Brentford team at half time but whatever it was worked an absolute treat.However it took a moment of sheer quality to give Brentford the lead of 53 minutes.A hanging cross into the box was flicked on by Burgess to Martin Rowlands on the right edge of the area.Quick as a flash he swung his right boot at it before the ball bounced and the ball fairly rocketed into the top right corner of the net.It gave Phillips in the City goal absolutely no chance whatsoever.Stunned by the sheer quality of the goal it took the majority of the 1,000 strong travelling faithful a split second to properly realise that the ball was in the net before we went berserk with delight.
We had just about recovered when 2 minutes later Brentford scored the second killer goal.The ball was played into Burgess at the half way line.He threaded through an exquisite through ball into the path of the on-rushing Lloyd Owusu who beat the defence with his blistering pace.He raced clear and calmly stroked the ball past the oncoming Phillips and the ball rolled into the back of the net.Queue more wild celebrations by the Brentford fans as we began to realise that our away day jinx was finally coming to an end.
City were visibly stunned by what had happened to them and tried to mount a comeback.It took some stout defending from the Bees backline combined with the good work of Smith in the Bees goal to keep the home side at bay as he made good saves from Peacock,Thorpe and ex-Brentford loanee Steve Jones,whilst Anderson was forced to clear off the line late on.However the City faithful knew the game was up long before the final whistle and started streaming towards the exits in their droves a good 10 minutes before the final whistle.
In actual fact Brentford should have scored with a couple of minutes to go as Burgess teed up Stephen Hunt in the box but with the goal at his mercy he blasted the goal high and not very handsomely over the bar.It mattered not a jot as a few minutes later referee Dermot Gallagher,who handed the game extremely well,blew his whistle to signify the end of the game.
This was a vital,vital victory for Bees in so many ways.Not only did we manage to break the away day jinx,we also managed to do it at one of our major rivals for promotion.It shows that Brentford are now able to cope with big game situations,which may be invaluable to us should we need to play-off route.However this victory might just have provided us with a possible opportunity to grab that second automatic promotion as results generally went our way.A good run between now and the end of the season might just be good enough.However if we do achieve promotion we'll certainly have done it the hard way and we would certainly have earnt it.The other major thing to take out of this was that it also showed that we didn't necessarily miss Gavin Mahon,at least not in the short term.The team now looks far more balanced with Sidwell in the middle and Rowlands on the right and if we can keep this team together until the end of the season who knows what is possible.
As far as individual performances go on the day well everybody in a Brentford shirt did themselves proud.Everyone had the "one for all,all for one" attitude which helped enormously.However one player deserves special praise and he's Ben Burgess who showed great vision when setting up both goals and who held the ball up tremendously when it was needed the most.Roll on Swindon Town.
MATCH RATINGS
Paul Smith 7
Michael Dobson 7
Ijah Anderson 7
Darren Powell 7
Ivar Ingimarsson 7
Stephen Hunt 7
Paul Evans(c) 7
Steve Sidwell 7
Martin Rowlands 8
Lloyd Owusu 8
Ben Burgess 9*
Subs
Olafur Gottskalksson n/a
Danny Boxall n/a
Kevin O'Connor n/a
Mark Williams n/a
David Theobald n/a
After our defeat against Oldham in midweek manager Steve Coppell rung the changes as out went the departing Gavin Mahon to be replaced at right back by Michael Dobson.The bench also saw changes as in came Gottskalksson and Danny Boxall,after a long absence through injury.
Given City's aspirations to gain automatic promotion it was vital that they made a fast start in order to encourage another large,expectant crowd at the Gate and so it proved as the Robins dominated early proceedings.They might have taken the lead on 5 minutes when good play in the midfield saw the ball fed into Brian Tinnion on the left.His cross was met by the head of Lee Peacock whose header deceived Paul Smith and seemed to be heading into the net.Fortunately the ball hit the left hand post and was hacked away to safety by Dobson.On the 10 minute mark another great chance for City went begging as Thorpe's powerful shot was acrobatically beaten away to safety by Smith in the Brentford goal.
It took some considerable time for the Bees to get any kind of foothold in the game as the City midfield,inspired by the always seemingly excellent Brian Tinnion,threatened at times to completely overrun their Brentford counterparts.Fortunately they managed to gain some momentum towards the end of the half and had a chance to take the lead on 38 minutes when good interplay between Rowlands and Burgess saw the ball played into Stephen Hunt in the area but his effort was smartly saved by Phillips low to his left.The Bees managed to ride out the remainder of the half without further incident and would have been the happier of the two sides to go at half time level.
I have absolutely no idea what manager Steve Coppell said to the Brentford team at half time but whatever it was worked an absolute treat.However it took a moment of sheer quality to give Brentford the lead of 53 minutes.A hanging cross into the box was flicked on by Burgess to Martin Rowlands on the right edge of the area.Quick as a flash he swung his right boot at it before the ball bounced and the ball fairly rocketed into the top right corner of the net.It gave Phillips in the City goal absolutely no chance whatsoever.Stunned by the sheer quality of the goal it took the majority of the 1,000 strong travelling faithful a split second to properly realise that the ball was in the net before we went berserk with delight.
We had just about recovered when 2 minutes later Brentford scored the second killer goal.The ball was played into Burgess at the half way line.He threaded through an exquisite through ball into the path of the on-rushing Lloyd Owusu who beat the defence with his blistering pace.He raced clear and calmly stroked the ball past the oncoming Phillips and the ball rolled into the back of the net.Queue more wild celebrations by the Brentford fans as we began to realise that our away day jinx was finally coming to an end.
City were visibly stunned by what had happened to them and tried to mount a comeback.It took some stout defending from the Bees backline combined with the good work of Smith in the Bees goal to keep the home side at bay as he made good saves from Peacock,Thorpe and ex-Brentford loanee Steve Jones,whilst Anderson was forced to clear off the line late on.However the City faithful knew the game was up long before the final whistle and started streaming towards the exits in their droves a good 10 minutes before the final whistle.
In actual fact Brentford should have scored with a couple of minutes to go as Burgess teed up Stephen Hunt in the box but with the goal at his mercy he blasted the goal high and not very handsomely over the bar.It mattered not a jot as a few minutes later referee Dermot Gallagher,who handed the game extremely well,blew his whistle to signify the end of the game.
This was a vital,vital victory for Bees in so many ways.Not only did we manage to break the away day jinx,we also managed to do it at one of our major rivals for promotion.It shows that Brentford are now able to cope with big game situations,which may be invaluable to us should we need to play-off route.However this victory might just have provided us with a possible opportunity to grab that second automatic promotion as results generally went our way.A good run between now and the end of the season might just be good enough.However if we do achieve promotion we'll certainly have done it the hard way and we would certainly have earnt it.The other major thing to take out of this was that it also showed that we didn't necessarily miss Gavin Mahon,at least not in the short term.The team now looks far more balanced with Sidwell in the middle and Rowlands on the right and if we can keep this team together until the end of the season who knows what is possible.
As far as individual performances go on the day well everybody in a Brentford shirt did themselves proud.Everyone had the "one for all,all for one" attitude which helped enormously.However one player deserves special praise and he's Ben Burgess who showed great vision when setting up both goals and who held the ball up tremendously when it was needed the most.Roll on Swindon Town.
MATCH RATINGS
Paul Smith 7
Michael Dobson 7
Ijah Anderson 7
Darren Powell 7
Ivar Ingimarsson 7
Stephen Hunt 7
Paul Evans(c) 7
Steve Sidwell 7
Martin Rowlands 8
Lloyd Owusu 8
Ben Burgess 9*
Subs
Olafur Gottskalksson n/a
Danny Boxall n/a
Kevin O'Connor n/a
Mark Williams n/a
David Theobald n/a