After what Thomas Frank has described as maybe the biggest result in the club’s history, a totally unexpected but, it has to be said, fully deserved 2-1 victory away at the Premier League champions, Manchester City, unquestionably one of the best teams in the world, Brentford fans had a beaming smile on their faces and a song in their hearts hoping to spend the next six weeks replaying every detail of it . For long-serving supporters like me weaned on away trips to the likes of Stockport, Bury and Oldham, it is still hard enough to believe that we are playing the likes of Manchester City on supposedly equal terms let alone actually beating them!
But we now face a period where we don’t know how long it will take for the FA to decide on the betting allegations against Ivan Toney and, if he is found guilty, how long a ban he might face this season or next. It makes long-term decision-making extremely difficult for the Director of Football Phil Giles.
All things considered what a topsy-turvy game football is. Brentford went into the Man City match without a win in the previous month and at the end of a week which saw them struggle initially to get a foothold against bottom of the table Nottingham Forest and after a determined fightback which saw the Bees take the lead they desperately tried to cling onto for a win, conceded the initiative, and disappointingly fell foul of a scrambled pinball 96th minute own goal equaliser which saw two valuable points dropped.
If that wasn’t bad enough Brentford then totally dominated the midweek Carabao Cup tie against League Two strugglers Gillingham, but despite the Bees having 81% possession and a ridiculous 16 shots to one advantage, the limpet-like visitors bravely clung on in the game as Brentford perhaps disdainfully lacked the killer touch and failed to put them to the sword, took their one and only chance in the game and the Gills then triumphed in the penalty shootout. This opportunity to win silverware disappeared in a puff of smoke to the disappointment of everyone at the club.
No wonder there was a slight hangover going into the City game when the roles would surely be reversed with Brentford becoming Gillingham and City, Brentford, given the likely possession figures.
That certainly turned out to be the case as City had the ball for fully three-quarters of the game, but it is what you do with it that counts and Brentford’s game plan was perfect. They stifled City at birth with De Bruyne smothered out of the game. The back five defended stoutly, however the Bees were brave, pressed City high, and prevented Ederson from setting his team onto the attack.
Ivan Toney was immense, winning almost every aerial duel as he was invariably picked out by the immaculate David Raya. Players were quick to rush forward in support with immense performances also from Frank Onyeka and Rico Henry, and the home team found it hard to create good chances. The Bees had eight shots on target with an xG figure of over 3 – the highest conceded by Manchester City at the Etihad in recent times, and Ivan Toney showed England manager Gareth Southgate, who had illogically omitted him from his World Cup squad, just what he was missing with perhaps his finest performance in a Brentford jersey.
Ivan scored twice and could quite easily have had five goals but for Ederson. The Bees were supremely well organised and for all their possession Raya was rarely troubled.
A point would have been beyond our wildest dreams and a win beyond comprehension, but rather than trying to cling on for a point, Thomas Frank, who performed a coaching masterclass, put the negativity of the last few minutes at Forest behind him and changed his mind about bringing on Saman Ghoddos, instead replacing the exhausted Onyeka on 87 minutes with the attacking flair of Josh Dasilva. This proved to be an inspired decision and totally made up for Frank deciding to sit on the lead late on at Forest – a decision that rebounded upon him.
Brentford broke away from an overhit City corner with energetic fellow-sub Wissa bringing the ball forward at warp speed supported by a cavalry charge of Brentford players, “like the Red Arrows” exclaimed Gary Lineker on Match of the Day, who ignored fatigue and simply ran and ran for the entire match – an incredible show of fitness and determination. Wissa, Henry, Dasilva, Toney, Jensen and even the impeccable Ben Mee raced forward and it was Josh who found the perfect low centre with his wrong foot for Toney to convert clinically from close range.
It took a mere 19 seconds from the time Foden took a 98th minute corner for the home team for the ball to hit the net at the other end right in front of the adoring and disbelieving Brentford supporters.
How ironic is it that after the heartbreak and frustration of conceding a 96th minute equaliser in the previous league game now it was Brentford’s turn to score the winner in the 98th minute – from agony to ecstasy!
I have delved deep into the record books and also engaged the expert and patient help of fellow Bees historian and stats guru, Jonathan Burchill, and neither of us can find any mention of a previous Brentford goal scored as late in a league game as this. There have been two recent examples of 96th minute winners – Bryan Mbeumo’s penalty against Watford last season and Philipp Hofmann’s “Pinball Wizard” three times deflected strike against Nottingham Forest in 2015 so perhaps history was made on Saturday?
It is interesting to learn that apparently City made no special plans for coping with Toney’s aerial threat, reasonably surmising that they would be able to create so many chances that it really didn’t matter what Brentford did – arrogance or overconfidence? Who knows or even cares! He could and perhaps should have rubbed salt into the wound by scoring a hat trick after another effervescent three-on-one Dasilva inspired break but was denied by a last-gasp goal line clearance. 3-1 might have been a bit greedy!
So, looking back on the first 15 games, how do we feel about things? 19 points is an improvement by two points after the same number of games last season, which is highly encouraging and sitting in 10th place (frustratingly just below Fulham on account of their one extra goal scored) is an incredible performance.
The only concern when I give into temptation and look downwards rather than up is that we are only six points above the relegation places and there are no real lame ducks this season, with perhaps 12 teams looking over their shoulder. Better then that we look upwards and note that we are only three points behind Liverpool who are in sixth place!
Our record of four wins, seven draws and only four defeats shows that we fully deserve to be where we are. Only three teams have lost less games than us and we are very hard to beat. Of our losses, we were very poor early on at Fulham and gave ourselves a mountain to climb but in the end only lost to an injury time winner. We never got going against Arsenal who cruised to victory, beat ourselves at Newcastle by giving them four – yes four – goals on a plate and were hammered by a resurgent Aston Villa who sacked Steven Gerrard a game too early for our liking!
We really could and should have more points as draws against Everton, Wolves, Crystal Palace and Chelsea could easily have been wins. All four victories were remarkable: The four-goal thrashing meted out to a shellshocked Manchester United lit up by another wonderful length of the pitch goal, a dagger to the heart of United move ended perfectly by Mbeumo, hitting Leeds for five, aided and abetted by one of the best hat tricks I have ever seen by Ivan Toney, out-thinking a talented Brighton team and then the magical performance against the Champions.
We have scored a healthy 23 goals, a figure bettered by only seven teams, but there have certainly been problems at the other end where we have conceded 25 times with only five teams letting in more.
At times we have looked disorganised, brittle and a soft touch and that has to stop. There is no doubting our team spirit as we have recovered from two goal deficits at Leicester and Fulham (where we eventually and cruelly lost) and also drew against Crystal Palace, Everton and Forest after trailing. Indeed, we have never lost a Premier League game after taking the lead – an incredible record!
There is a really obvious reason for our occasional defensive woes. We have vacillated between different formations: 4-3-3, 3-5-2 and 3-4-3 depending upon the quality of the opposition and the players we have available. 3-5-2 fitted us like a glove on Saturday as we gave little away and both full backs and two of the midfielders got forward in support of the front two. We look vulnerable playing 4-3-3 and for differing but good reasons we have lacked pace and bite on the wings. We certainly wanted to become more open and expansive this season but sometimes we have come unstuck and moved too far away from our proven strengths of organisation, fitness, high pressing, energy, bravery and excelling at set pieces at both ends of the pitch.
We have been decimated by injuries and have missed the likes of Jansson, Hickey, Pinnock, Canos, Goode, Norgaard, Lewis-Potter, Ajer, Baptiste, Janelt and Strakosha for vast swathes of the season.
The loss of the exciting Keane Lewis-Potter just when it looked like he was beginning to adapt to the rigorous demands of the Premier League was particularly frustrating, as has been the time required to try and get Mikkel Damsgaard fit and ready to play. He is such a talented player and we have yet to see very much of him, although he got his first assist against Gillingham recently. He could turn out to be one of our best ever signings – but we have to be patient and understanding.
Hickey too looked to be an excellent acquisition before he was injured in training. Norgaard has perhaps been the costliest absentee as he has only just returned after an absence of 10 matches and his protection of the defence has been sorely missed.
Canos has barely played all season and on his eventual return received a slight knock at Forest which caused him to miss the Gillingham game where his pace and ability to get down the sides would surely have provided us with the ammunition to win the game – more frustration!
No team can cope with the loss of so many of their best players – many simultaneously, and with the exception of Ajer whose recovery may take longer, hopefully we can get everybody else back and fully fit when the Premier League resumes on Boxing Day. At that point we can decide which system best suits us from a position of strength rather than necessity, and plan accordingly.
We possess a multitalented but still small squad and perhaps some reinforcements are required in January, maybe a pacy winger, but we can judge what it is that we need, if anything, once players return to fitness.
Ivan Toney has scored 10 Premier League goals, 11 in total and his performances have been exceptional. With 22 he has scored over double the number of Premier League goals scored by any other Brentford player (Wissa has managed 10). He is, bar Harry Kane, the best and most versatile English striker in the country.
Rico Henry’s performance against Man City again shows how unlucky he is to have been overlooked by his country, as on his day, there is not a better left back in the Premier League. Mathias Jensen has also come into his own and is finally receiving the acclamation he fully deserves and his creativity and pressing ability has meant that the laments for the departed Christian Eriksen are fading into the background.
A word too for Ben Mee, surely the best free transfer in our history, who has become a leader, organiser and mentor and is now one of the first names on the team sheet. Ethan Pinnock too has returned seamlessly and impressively to the team after his spell out with injury.
Let’s now enjoy a World Cup that has six Brentford players performing in it: Norgaard, Jensen and Damsgaard for Denmark, Raya (Spain), Mbeumo (Cameroon) and Ghoddos (Iran). We all know that there should have been eight rather than six, but it is still a highly impressive number and bears full testimony to the calibre and quality of the players at our club.
There is still so much to look forward to and we are all supporters of a quite remarkable football club for whom the best is surely still to come.