Bees United Newsletter

BEES UNITED NEWSLETTER
OCTOBER 2021
Membership Number <<Membership No.>>

This weekend 40 years ago the first black player in a Football League game for Brentford took the field against Burnley. Soon Chris Kamara became the first black captain of Brentford (picture). Now in 2021 Brentford are back in Burnley and since that day in 1981 over 25% of our players have had a black heritage. We have a special video message from Chris. We also report on the implications of David Raya’s injury and we have an an exclusive video on what Danish TV is saying about Brentford.

A MESSAGE FROM CHRIS KAMARA

To mark the 40th anniversary of that day, 31st October 1981,Chris Kamara, has sent a special video message.

WATCH THE VIDEO

CELEBRATING BRENTFORD’S BLACK PLAYERS

Chris’s video message was shown at a special Brentford event in the new Black History section of ‘Farewell Griffin Park -the Fans Story’ exhibition at the London Museum of Water and Steam which is open every weekend from 10-4. Former Bees stars Clayton Donaldson and Toumani Diagouraga have tweeted their thanks that Bees United has mentioned them in the exhibition.

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HOW WILL THE BEES COPE WITHOUT DAVID RAYA?

No sooner had the shock news about David Raya’s knee injury sunk in than Bees fans got another chance to see his replacement Alvaro Fernandez in action in the Carabao Cup victory over Stoke. BU Board member David Anderson of the Brentford Tactical podcast compares the two keepers.

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DENMARK TV TAKES PRIDE IN THE BEES

Last Sunday the leading Danish TV channel devoted no less than ten minutes of their main news to a report about the success of Brentford. With the help of DR reporter Torben Schou and BU member Tobias Neigaard we’ve chosen the best bits and subtitled them in English.

WATCH THE VIDEO

SOME WORDS WITH THE OWNER

The owner of Brentford FC, Matthew Benham, doesn't say much in public. But the founder of the Griffin Park Grapevine, Trevor Inns, managed to get a chat with him.

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THREE EXCITING HOME GAMES , ONE POINT

When the fixtures schedule threw up three home games in succession against teams in last season’s top six we knew we were in for exciting times. We’ve come away with some great memories, reassurance that we can hold our own with the best but only one point.

Relive it all with with Bill Hagerty’s match reports:

Brentford v Liverpool
Brentford v Chelsea
Brentford v Leicester

NEVER MIND IT IS A WONDERFUL TIME TO BE A BEE

BU Contributing Editor Greville Waterman can remember when the only coverage of Brentford was in the Middlesex Chronicle. Now he’s coping with ‘total information overload’. Despite some recent disappointing results he's still upbeat about life as a Premier League Bee fan.

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SAMAN OPENS UP ON HIS ‘TOUGH START’ WITH THE BEES

Saman Ghoddos has given a very honest interview to an Iranian football podcast about his ‘tough start’ at Brentford. He also talks about the fitness regime at the Jersey Road training ground.

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FEATURE

HOW AN 87 YEAR-OLD NOBEL PRIZE WINNER HELPS BEES PLAYERS

Could it really be that when players join Brentford they are encouraged to read a book by a prize winning psychologist and economist and listen to a former Olympic swimmer.According to The Athletic’s Brentford correspondent Jay Harris it is.We wanted to know more.

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FEATURE

A CUP WIN AGAINST ‘THE FISH’

We don’t normally cover B team games but we heard they’d played a cup tie against a club known as ‘The Fish’ which is named after a Catholic saint. Faithful B team follower and BFC Vice - Chairman, Donald Kerr, reports back from the shadow of Canary Wharf.

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FEATURE

DO YOU REMEMBER THE BEES IN THE 1930s AND 1940s? ALBERT DOES

Last year we reported on 97 year old BU member Albert French who first went to Griffin Park in 1934. Now he’s been to our new stadium with his family and carer for his first top-flight Brentford game for three quarters of a century. We’re hoping Albert will be one of our first interviewees in a new Bees history project.

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BEES NEWS IN BRIEF

The Bees Superstore has opened at the junction of Lionel Road and the A4. The BU book about the new stadium, given free to most members, is on sale at £35.
BU and BIAS have had a series of meetings with the club about problems with the ticketing system. Some issues have not yet been resolved and more meetings are likely.

BEST OF BEES ONLINE

The Chairman of Bees United, Stewart Purvis, has been interviewed about the role of the Supporters Trust and its Golden Share in the Club for the Price of Football podcast. The interview, which is 38 minutes into the podcast, has had positive feedback on social media.

David Raya’s injury came just as it seemed everybody was talking about him. Sky Sports had an ‘exclusive interview’ with him but he also appeared on BBC Football Focus. Sadly that is no longer on BBC player but we dug out an old article on what we thought was the most interesting angle, his early days on loan at Southport.

Brentford co-director of football, Phil Giles, has given an in-depth interview with a team of questioners from the Griffin Park Grapevine. Well worth a read for lots of interesting detail.

Bees fan Billy Grant was on BBC Match of the Day 2 (also no longer available on iplayer) but the video he did about being an England fan is still online.

COMMUNITY SPORTS TRUST

Following the success of their summer multi-sports camp the Trust offered a three day multi-sports camp for children in school years one to six at Gunnersbury Park Sports Hub. Their camps feature a range of different sports delivered by our experienced coaching staff with football, gymnastics, basketball, badminton, dodgeball and more! The Trust website has details of what’s up next.

IMAGE OF THE MONTH

Does this picture look familiar to any reader? It is a photo of a painting with the caption ‘Farewell Griffin Park 116 years of Football History 1904-2020. It was handed in at our exhibition at the London Museum of Water and Steam but we don’t know who was kind enough to do that.

If you know please email stewart.purvis@beesunited.org.uk. We’d love to put the actual painting in the exhibition.

This monthly newsletter is published by Bees United, the Brentford Supporters Trust. Please send any comments or suggestions to admin@beesunited.org.uk. If you know Brentford fans who are not yet members please encourage them to join here.

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