‘Jonathan grew up to become a Brentford supporter, following his Dad’s love of the game, who watched in the 1940s and 50s. Generations of Burchills came from South Ealing and Jonathan’s first Brentford game, in January 1976, was in the FA Cup, a 3rd Round tie v Bolton Wanderers.
The match included a young Sam Allardyce on the Wanderers books.
An interest in statistics came easily, care of a PE teacher, Gordon Spurgeon, who Jonathan mentioned.
Spurgeon also taught former Brentford manager Wally Downes.
Lover of spreadsheets, patterns and trends, ‘some trends don’t always mean good news’ – but they are true!
Jonathan says, ‘I post stats that aren’t readily available.’ To misquote that final in 1966, ‘they are now.’
We asked Jonathan if it is possible to talk for an hour about Bees – about Griffin Park Bees, paraphernalia, stats, facts goals and more.
‘Yes indeed!’ , and this was our ‘Evening with the author’, Jonathan Burchill with snippets from, ‘A Pub On Each Corner‘
It was more than you ever knew or had forgotten, about Griffin Park!
Warming up
First ‘peno’ shoot out
Feb 1990 The Leyland DAF Cup quarter-final match with Bristol Rovers ended 1-1 after 90 minutes, and 2-2 after the end of extra time, thanks to a 120th-minute equaliser from Dean Holdsworth. Brentford then took part in their first-ever penalty shoot-out. Allan Cockram scored the first spot-kick
An effluent GP?
1976 The hottest summer for over 350 years, and resultant drought, had an adverse effect on the Griffin Park pitch.
Denis Piggott, Club Secretary, had the idea of transporting 30,000 gallons of water from the Mogden Sewage Treatment Works in Isleworth to give the pitch a thorough soaking.
It would have cost £450, but long-awaited thunderstorms made the plan unnecessary.
State of the union
1970 • On 16 March, Griffin Park had an attendance of 15,000, the best since the League Cup match with Norwich City in the previous season. The gathering was not for a football match, though, but for striking firemen from Heathrow Airport. The main stand was packed to capacity, with many others on the terraces as they listened to representatives from six unions speaking for over four hours regarding the dispute. Whilst the meeting was going on, a small fire broke out in some wood at the back of the Braemar Road stand. Airport fireman Syd Wells doused it with a fire extinguisher.
A pre Benham statistical approach!
1971 • The first Griffin Park defeat of the season came against Southend United, when it ended 1-2. The game also saw the Bees concede their first goal of the season from a static position. Frank Blunstone had a theory that 40% of the goals scored in the league were scored from static positions (free kicks and corners) and if these set plays were defended successfully, the number of goals conceded would reduce by a similar amount.
And when Peter Gilham’s not there?
2003 • On 18 February, the Bees hosted a League game with Colchester United. Peter Gilham was unavailable for his usual Big B Radio duties as the match had been re-arranged from 1 January and he was away, so Helen Chamberlain, from Sky TV’s Soccer AM, took over. She had previously mentioned on the programme that she would like the opportunity to make PA announcements at a match, and had been invited to Griffin Park. Her tenure was short-lived as the game was abandoned at half-time due to a frozen pitch, with the score 0-0. It was the eighth, and final, game to be abandoned at Griffin Park.
Applause all round from a grinning audience
We got a full suit of tops and bottoms
1973 After the 1-4 away defeat at Scunthorpe United on 27 October, the Bees went to the bottom of the Fourth Division. It was in October, 36 years earlier, that the Bees had taken the top spot in the First Division for the first time. Brentford became the first club to have been in the top and bottom places, of the four-tier Football League, in its history.
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