Bill Hagerty sees sharpshooting Bees outgun mid-table rivals Preston to end the season on a high

 In theory it was a game with little to play for – two sides with an equal number of points out for a canter with nothing much at stake. Except for Brentford, that is. 

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Bill Hagerty sees the Bees spank the Yorkshire high flyers and dent their automatic promotion aspirations

The script was written before the game began. Leeds, rebounding from an embarrassing Good Friday home defeat by Wigan, would gain three points to maintain their contention for second place in the Championship, just as long as Sheffield United stumbled against Hull in an earlier kick-off. Trouble was that by the time Leeds took to the pitch at Griffin Park, the Blades had demonstrated that they hadn’t read the script. And neither, it transpired, had Brentford.

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Stewart Purvis sees ten Brentford men earn a point at an angry Den.

A goal down after 15 minutes, a man down after 35, Brentford's equaliser was one of their goals of the season and they hung on to earn a point and could, maybe even should, have won the game.

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Stewart Purvis joined the Bees caravan down the M4 that came away with nothing.

Remember when Brentford used to go to Reading with a better than even chance of winning? When Woods and Canos scored two great goals at Christmas 2015. When Vibe got the winner in front of the Brentford end last season. For 2,000 Bees fans (1,954 to be precise) those memories were alive enough for them to travel to a game which had no real significance in Brentford's foreclosing season other than the search for an elusive third away win. The only memory they took away this time was another disappointing away game, not quite as bad as Swansea but not much better. 

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Bill Hagerty sees the Bees return to winning ways in a lacklustre Griffin Park encounter

It was hardly a night to remember. Indeed, following the thrills of the high-scoring draw against Derby, the despairing visit to Griffin Park of the Tractor Boys might well have been forgotten before one reached the end of Braemar Road but for the spirited presence of 1,600 fans from East Anglia.

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Bill Hagerty celebrates a return to form that produced a point from a thrilling Griffin Park encounter

This is a tale of guts and nerve; a story of how the Bees, their season written off by many following a 3-0 drubbing at Swansea, resurrected it by three times responding to goals by play-offs contenders Derby and very nearly sent the Rams home like a flock of sorrowful sheep. 

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Stewart Purvis was one of the Bees fans who returned to Swansea hoping for revenge but only got a reprise.

Away at Swansea Brentford went down to their biggest defeat of the season since they were last away at Swansea. They conceded a goal in the first minute for the first time since they did the same at home against Swansea. Talk about ‘deja vu all over again’.

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Stewart Purvis reports on how Brentford came away with a point and were still disappointed.

A smell of manure wafted across the DW Stadium and got increasingly worse as the game went on. Nobody was sure if a spectator had walked through an extremely large cowpat on his way to the game or whether there was a more distant agricultural explanation caught on a high wind towards the ground. Either way the smell will probably last longer in the memory of the 542 Bees fans than the game itself. 

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Bill Hagerty reflects on a game of might-have-beens where three points were gone with the wind

If just one, but preferably two, of a cluster of first-half chances had been accepted… If West Brom hadn’t chosen this football tutorial to demonstrate their first class honours degree in time-wasting… If the fourth official had concentrated more on his stopwatch than the hot tea and buns, or whatever was distracting him, and awarded ten instead of a paltry four minutes’ extra time…well, it might all have been different.

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Stewart Purvis was back in Sheffield for another Tuesday evening that fell flat.

On a windy wasteful night in South Yorkshire Brentford missed an opportunity to win away for the second time in four days and close the gap on the Championship play-off zone. After a frustrating game against one of the front runners for promotion, the only good news was that the gap remained at six points for at least 24 hours.

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