Smith out

0

Strolling to victory and poor substitutions cost dearly.

1

Great day out, Fraser and miles superb and exciting for the season. Sears looks excellent. Smith very poor. Micks subs / tactics at the end cost us 3 points, we couldn't keep the ball. Overall a good point and FPR will be a more exciting place this season.

1

And so it is. In brilliant sunshine, the warmth of Griffin Park extended beyond the welcome of last season's friends and fellow playoff also-rans as August announced another campaign on away soil for Town. "F*cking have it" mouthed captain Chambers as he wheeled away from us in the terrace and took his place in a very new look side. Exulting ambitions for the game, the season and something higher no less. We all concurred with our leader.

Two new sides were out there, as Knudsen sat behind Fraser and Emmanuel at right back was with Ainsley Maitland-Niles beyond him. Chambers and Smith were guarded by Bru and Skuse whilst Murphy and Sears completed a more familiar central column of veritable veterans. The newly manicured beard of Bialkowski completed Town's XI.

It was the hosts who'd get the ball rolling, like us new and yet somehow familiar they looked more threatening, even if their chances were fashioned from less clearcut and sharper football. Town would be pushed back by sheer force of will from the likes of Jota. When the best of his many chances came, the long-hair whipped in time with nimble feet to see the attacker clean through until Tommy Smith tackle denied him a certain goal. When he again went flying legitimately for once in the box, he forced a brilliant save from Bart to keep the game level. Those were the best of his and his side's chances in the half.

While the makeshift defence were just about coping, the cracks were there to be seen and seized one felt. Emmanuel looks a real prospect, however the limit of his abilities were evident early on as he eventually grew into an encouraging debut. Happy to play the ball forward, and not look over his shoulder was more of a blessing but sometimes a curse when the Bees came buzzing and chances went begging for the home side. The youngster was clearly targeted but rarely hit.

Skuse would make an early bid for POTS within just 30 minutes of back and forth football he showed his exquisite reading of the game and outlined clear instructions for the youngsters around him, A mentor and metronomic performance of assuredness thwarted and interrupted the rhythm of a Brentford side that felt like they couldn't quite get going.

Going forward Town laid on more deadly crosses than the Romans, but the killer touch eluded us all too often. Fraser was a dynamic force, cutting inside to fire at Button numerous times he rocked the defenders but left our own exposed with his endeavours. Sears perfectly overlapped his nearest colleague on flank and shoulder without adjustment. A more supportive striker you couldn't ask for fashioning stylish openings for AMN, Murphy and Fraser throughout the half. One almost felt at times our own players couldn't believe they still had possession as they got beyond the last man and byline but never a clear enough sight of goal.

All that changed as half time approached. Another incisive drop of Fraser's shoulder, left Button grasping at fresh air. Only the inside of the post denied the rocket from the loanee's instep falling to the opposite flank for an acrobatic Bru to fire home the rampaging Emmanuel's return ball, and be the first blue to celebrate this season. A goal, a grin, a terrace nearly subsided the length of the pitch away and no time to respond as soon the player's headed in for half time.

Another grin and thumbs up from a trotting Mick greeted us all and soon his boys were kicking off as he reached the dugout, Terry in tow. The three sides of the ground and one on the pitch coloured in red and white, looked to be haemorrhaging confidence and belief. If the resistance of the first half had shown a more hardened "Championship" mentality to Brentford, then Town drowned them with experience. The longest-serving side in the division began to cut loose.

If the shakey mix of youth and necessity afforded too much space and shooting opportunity for Town to be truly comfortable with Brentford, then the opening forays helped all of the a Suffolk persuasion relax just a little. Knudsen had sometimes bypassed the midfield with his mortar throws, and while both strikers ran clear in the first half and failed to make their shots count. When the Dane (known as "Ka-nu-nu" to only the bloke somewhere in front of me) launched a more diagonal effort, only the length of Maitland-Niles hair prevented him from touching it back and probably past a flapping Button early on in the second half. It adds such a diversity to our attacks even if "mixing it" affronts the poor purists.

Soon Sears was away again. The speed of his and our team's movement drew Button and friend out and left Fraser to sew up the lead and what we assumed was the match. Making it two for Town and putting all three points in sight with much of the game still to go. Around us only lads, lads and scenes. Like Gorillas on the piss, a strange and powerful dance of thrusting limbs and primal bellows of joy as Bru and co mobbed wee Ryan and all were wrapped up in the rush of the drug long missed in these summer months.

Brentford brought on last year's star Gray and it would be ten minutes before he'd emerge from the shade of Sears' hunt for a goal of his own and test Bart. Running forward to meet the unsettled striker, our Pole was lucky to see the ball loop way over the goal he'd vacated a little rashly.

Our own talisman of 14/15 was the quietest of a brash and bold attack who looked like a third goal was inevitable whenever we felt like getting forward, all until the finish was again required. Brentford weren't buried, but Town were putting in the spadework. Maitland-Niles shaded the nod for most eye-catching debut. Confidence by the bucket load, but some real magic in those young boots. With so many tricks one ponders on the prospect of Mick putting McGhee behind him when Emmanuel managed a 90 of some promise, Parr sat out injured and Berra suspended.

When the young Arsenal man was eventually subbed for McGoldrick Town having already introduced Coke and Douglas to the midfield for an injured Bru and battered Fraser, it was a lovely touch of Chambers to congratulate young Josh on having 90 minutes from Mick before unleashing some clear encouragement.

As the full time mark approached and Town had failed to bank the numerous shots, scrapes and cut out chances from all over the pitch. The long and the short-range counted for nothing as two minutes into the five added on minutes passed. The Bees' would-be Tiger pounced on a long pass and saw off the previously impressive Smith and Bartman with a predatory strike. We couldn't believe it, but somehow they did. The fact that we were undone by such rudimentary route onery was the result of Mick's swaps squeezing the game and the guile for all their worth.

With little left to play and so much to play for, it was high drama and even higher stakes when a snappy Brentford attack forced a corner and all eleven of their men forward. Town matched them, when perhaps a runner on halfway might have curtailed them. Who knows. Who cares? Bart went flying, but for what looked a clear foul from the wrong end through blue eyes, no offender was near, the ball crashed off the woodwork and any number of players as Brentford found the net, the equaliser and the will to somehow steal what should never have been theirs. The spirit in the sky, was definitely not listening now.

For what felt like a win for so much of the game, faces, hearts and points all dropped so fast and so hard as to break like a rogue and drowning wave upon us all. A sickened silence across the 1600 with the spurts of protest and disbelief from irate individuals. Another year, another reminder of what will be rarely, being as sickening as what can. Hope springs terminal perhaps for what else kills the lowly fan's dreams?

6

Promising performance but silly goals after the blitzed us.

Can't do better than the excellent description by Mullet - see below

2

Mullet, as an exile I hope you are at every game, exquisite read mate.

1

Thanks for what you have done for us Smith but with Berra back next week i think him and Chambers could be getting us back to a strengh like we had in Delaney and Mcauley.

0

What could have been but wasnt, what should have been but wasnt....................Brentford utilised the uncertainty of a sure away winand scraped a last Minute equaliser. We might rewgret the missing two Points at the end of a Long season but everything evens itself out and we will win undeservedly too?

0