Second Season: Glorious Finale

That Special Season – Round-up

The Bees’ glorious season ended more or less where it started. Goals from Ivan Toney and Josh Dasilva cancelling out a couple from Leicester City to earn a point in the opening game, but the first home challenge saw Manchester United receive a 4-0 drubbing, suggesting something very special might be about to happen.

This being Brentford, however, ‘about to happen’ was still a long way off.

Their first defeat, 3-2, was followed by a couple of draws before an elevating 5-2 win over Leeds United – Ivan Toney winning a hat-trick – immediately followed by a deflating 3-0 at the hands of the already high-flying Arsenal.

Another draw, at Bournemouth, a 5-1 hammering at Newcastle – how they chortled in Leeds! – then a 2-0 over Brighton and another draw (home to Chelsea) that heralded a 4-0 defeat at Aston Villa. Those who felt they could discern a pattern developing here were smarter than most, but two draws on the trot certainly against teams not generally considered to be topflight suggested that whatever the Bees were having for breakfast, it wasn’t one of those cereals that stimulate both body and brain.

EFL cup-ties tended to agree. A 2-0 win over League Two journeymen Colchester was followed by a lack-lustre performance against even lowlier League Two opposition in Gillingham, who won the penalty shoot-out at the Gtech without apparently breaking sweat.

That splendid home ground opening victory over Man United became more distant by the day. Defeats by Newcastle and Villa were seldom mentioned in the Griffin or any other local pub; Fulham’s win at Craven Cottage was probably not spoken of at all, but that was probably because it was Fulham.

And then… and then the Manchesters suddenly re-entered the Premier League picture. Away at the Etihad Stadium, Brentford were expected to be soundly thrashed by one of the only two sides in contention for the Premiership title, yet Toney scored twice and almost snatched a late third in recording a magnificent victory. Could this be the trigger to turn around what had so far been a hum-drum season for the Bees, only occasionally reaching the heights that most of the dedicated favourites believed was within their reach. Well, up to a point it was.

Tottenham drew at the Gtech, but West Ham, Bournemouth, Leeds, and Southampton were beaten. Arsenal and Crystal Palace could only draw and in a smouldering atmosphere the previous Fulham score was reversed, 3-2 to the Bees. A stumble saw relegation candidates win 1-0 at Goodison Park before losing more points from Manchester United – ‘We still won 3-0 on aggregate’, said my mate Charlie – Newcastle and Wolves.

Come the run-in to season’s end, Liverpool narrowly won and Chelsea were beaten, 2-0 at Stamford Bridge, and Nottingham Forest at the Gtech. Following Bees’ draw with Villa, Spurs were spanked 3-1 at their own ground. The denouement saw Brentford get the best of admittedly a weakened Manchester City for the second time – the only side to beat the Champions both home and away.

What of the future? Toney will be missed during his long period of suspension, although the team coped admirably without him in the closing weeks. David Raya has been outstanding in goal, but his departure seems imminent and the club’s timely signing of Mark Flekken from Bundesliga club Freiburg shows the Bees are, as often happens, ahead of the game.

Brentford’s involvement in the new competition in the United States means a healthy flow of football continues to flow in West London (and that includes Fulham). Thomas Frank, hopefully wedded to the Bees for many a season ahead, will be planning how to surpass the achievements of this one.

‘Yes, but what are we going to do for the next two months,’ said Charlie.

Brentford 1, Manchester 0

So near, but oh, so far. Brentford would have to beat the Premier League champions, and then Spurs and Aston Villa lose, for them to be leapfrogged into a position that would deliver a place in next season’s Europa Conference League.

With manager Pep Guardiola allowing some of his key players having a rest day and others to sit on the bench, the Bees duly delivered.

Spurs and Aston Villa duly didn’t, both achieving last-day victories. But were the home side, and the Gtech Community Stadium home crowd, disappointed?
Not a bit.

The post-match celebrations of ninth place in the League, and now the only team to have beaten City home and away during a spectacular season, might easily have served for topping the table while also winning both the cup competitions on offer (less to be said about the latter, what with them exiting both while still on no more than casual acquaintance).

As it was, the Brentford faithful behaved impeccably in refraining from rushing on to the pitch – not one interloper, let alone a swarm – and then waiting for the jubilant players to fulfil ‘media duties’ before remerging to bathe in the all-round glow of achievement that settled on them, the coaching staff, the spectators, the stewards and, for all I know, the ladies who sell the samosas in the Dugout lounge.

It was not just the almost last-gasp match-winning goal that sparked such merrymaking. Club captain Pontus Jansson, off to Malmo after the four ‘best years of my life’, blubbed as he told the crowd ‘Brentford football club, you have been my passion, now you have won my heart’ and the crowd chanted ‘He’s one of our own’.

Pontus also waxed vociferous about club ambassador Peter Gilham – ‘Mr Brentford’ – and the crowd responded warmly to Saman Ghoddos, off to pursue his career elsewhere, and Thomas Frank, even if his emotional message of the Bees as ‘the best f—–g team in West London’ had anxious parents reaching too late to put fingers in the ears of their offspring.

Mingling on the pitch with players, their families and members of the coaching staff was owner Matthew Benham, resplendent in green shirt and green sunglasses perched back on his head. Quite rightly, everyone else concerned thanked him. Famously reserved, today he looked pleased bordering on euphoric. Long may he remain so.

All that remained was for Ted Lasso to turn up, such was the dramatic recognition of a season that for Brentford had been written off by many pundits before a ball had been kicked.

Prior to the carousing on and off the pitch, there had been a football match.

Early on, there were those who greeted with dismay the news that midfielder Mathias Jensen had joined Christian Norgaard in the injury department. Certainly, Mikkel Damsgaard, Vitaly Janelt and Frank Onyeka looked a makeshift midfield engine room and David Raya – captain for the day and, it transpired, also soon to be on his way – was kept watchful, especially by the energy of Phil Foden, one of the City stars to have avoided the cut.

Apart from a rejected claim for a penalty by the Bees, the most notable incident of the half was Ben Mee’s collapse and subsequent medical attention for three or more minutes. Come the break, and the one additional minute awarded was a puzzlement to us all.

In the second period, Brentford established a rhythm that unsettled the visitors, even though referee John Brooks did his best to interrupt their momentum with a cluster of yellow cards, four in all by the end.

Raya was still required to intervene in City’s sporadic attacks – only a full-stretch dive foiled Cole Palmer and, later, a double-save again prevented the ever-dangerous forward from scoring.

One goal by either side would probably settle the outcome, I told my mate Charlie.

And so, five minutes from the end of normal time, it came to pass: substitute Kevin Schade supplying a fine cross that was nodded into the path of Ethan Pinnock by Bryan Mbeumo. A goal scored with Pinnock’s feet rather than his head is not exactly unknown in this particular bus stop in Hounslow, but this one – left boot, in case you’re wondering – made the five minutes of added time especially pleasurable.

Cheerio cheerio cheerio …..

And it makes next season look even more welcome, I told Charlie.

‘Europe, here we come’, said Charlie.

Brentford: Raya; Hickey (substitute Dasilva 70), M Jorgensen, Mee, Pinnock, Henry; Damsgaard (Schade,70), Janelt, Onyeka (Baptiste 81); Mbeumo (Ghoddos 89), Wissa (Roerslev 89).

Manchester City: Ederson; Aké (Charles 63), Laporte, Walker; Phillips, Foden; Palmer, Lewis, Gómez, Alvarez; Mahrez.