arsenal – Around Hanwell and up the allotment

February made us shiver

Everton 4 Brentford 1 (FA Cup) 4th round Saturday 5 February

Everton have a new manager. Not sure they’re right for each other, but hey-ho. We shall speculate on how long before the Magic Lamp starts singing a different kind of blues.

Couldn’t go cos of work. First game of season missed, home or away. Someone should compose a paean to those who go home and away, rain or shine, every season. Commitment. Dedication. Is their outlook different to home onlys?

But we will be there for the Prem League near the end of the season.

Manchester City 2 Brentford 0 Wednesday 9 February

The train up to Manchester, hotel check-in and a wander round. It’s been a long time since either of us has visited Manchester. It’s been a long time since we had to deal with such a long losing run. A long time since we’ve felt the loom of relegation at this point in the season.

We like Manchester. Memories of Afflecks Palace and all that. But these days there are many more street characters and homeless hopefuls than before. Meanwhile James Watt reads a book about steam engines.

Manchester bee images abound, not unlike our own humble bumble, they symbolise the city’s age-old work ethic. Not sure how hard City would have to work today…

As we Bees swarmed to the 7.45pm kick off under a blue moon, word went round that Ivan Toney had injured his calf and that Canos and Ghoddos would be playing up front. Gosh.

The Etihad is a beautiful stadium, especially at night with the constellations of bright lights adorning the massive steel framework and the flash motors in the carpark. Starry starry night. The programme seller also offers the club magazine and the club songbook…

No Covid tests. Concrete innards and a smaller concourse than Spurs but does the job with quick service and easy access to the spacious seats – plenty of leg room here. Through the clouds from the smoke machines, the energetic waving of big flags and the din of Blue Moon and something by Oasis I failed to notice the cardboard portal of silliness and I’m glad I did, though I did notice the wonderfully large scoreboard.

The only downside is that the away section is split over two tiers, which made coordinated singing difficult for those of us in the upper level. It made it harder to compete with the City fans, who love to sing and did so all game.

In the first half we were nervy, then competent but not brilliant. We fended off the best team in the world for 40 minutes, until Raheem Sterling drew a foul from Mads Roerslev and Mahrez pooped in the penalty. What a shame. Half time came and the PA treated us to some more Oasis.

The matchday programme features an interesting bit about Kevin Cummins, NME photographer and City fan who in 1980 did a shoot with Madness and still got to the game at Coventry by dint of deviousness. I loved the NME in those days. Everyone did.

The half-time Pep-talk had City ramping up the action way down the other end of the pitch. Raya was kept busy and just one slip, a fluffed pass that ended up at Sterling’s feet. Shot saved but ball fell to De Bruyne, who was never going to miss from there.

Wissa and Mbeumo came on. City went into cruise control, but there was no time wasting. Sign of a good side?

Scuffles on the lower tier at the interface of Brentford and City fans. Amazed it went on for so long given the huge number of stewards and police. Sparked I think by objects thrown down from upper-tier City fans away to our left. No one got thumped.

As we left the ground to the accompaniment of more Oasis, we were just grateful Brentford didn’t get a thumping either. As for City? No one can stop them now – coz they are all made of stars.

Brentford 0 Crystal Palace 0 Saturday 12 February

An even-muster-winner game if ever there was. Well, certainly must not lose. Need to halt the slide.

We missed the introduction of Onward Christian Eriksen before the game. Guess he’ll be making his first-team debut before too long.

One of the portal porters telling Pontus that most other clubs’ portals are plywood not cardboard

‘Palace have a plywood portal… pass it on!’

Palace are strong and tricksy, as we discovered at their place way back in August. They also have the brilliant but easily provoked Wilfred Saha up their sleeve.

In the first half some good football was played, entertaining stuff. In the second half Palace improved and we didn’t, a familiar pattern where a once solid defence gets rattled and resorts to scrappy clearances. We just didn’t look like we’d score. The fans instead started hoping we wouldn’t concede, we’d be happy with the point.

Controversy about the cross a Palace player handballed that the ref didn’t give. Funny how bad the refereeing is when you’re not winning.

The draw was a fair result. Our heads are still above water.

Arsenal 2 Brentford 0 Saturday 19 February

Twenty years ago a Gooner ex-colleague was forever going on about going up the Arse. Until one day some wag asked him if he ever took his girlfriend…

Patrick Vieira, who we saw at Brentford with his Palace team just last week.

Micah Richards has been getting some stick after saying on Radio5live that Brentford are overrated. I’m not sure who by, but he does have a point. We’ve long since stopped being the breath-of-fresh-air newcomer surprise package that beat Arsenal in the first game of this Premier League season.Patrick Vieira, who we saw at Brentford with his Palace team just last week.

In the concourse for a pie and a pint. All good tho small compared with Spurs and City. The telly tells us Newcastle only drew. We’re so happy, one of the shit cushions is still in place. This is what it’s come to…

Arsenal are certainly a lot better now, but still have a tendency to self destruct. A red mist (with white sleeves and white shorts) still sometimes descends and leaves its red calling card.

We weathered the first half but storm clouds awaited the start of the second.

Arsenal’s matchday programme has a lively community feel to it and the easiest Spot the Difference, ever.

A welcome belated patch of sunny blue greeted our VAR-confirmed consolation at the Emirates.

The clock from the old Highbury Clock End told us Arsenal’s revenge was all but in the bag and, well, we hadn’t expect to win this one anyway. Most of the shit cushion teams below us didn’t win either.

As we file down Upper Street to the Spoonies at the Angel I muse aloud that we might finish by staying up with the lowest points total ever. No one laughs. I am rebuked.

Brentford 0 Newcastle United 2 Saturday 26 February

Hanwell Town has a strong connection to Newcastle so opened their bar to Newcastle fans before the game, even though Hanwell were playing away today. Nice touch.

It felt like spring as we walked to the stadium, and hope springs eternal as we learn that Ivan Toney and Christian Eriksen are on the bench. Eleven games left and the season starts here!

In five minutes’ time they’ll be taking it down again.

But our new season lasted not much longer than the no-sooner-assembled-than-dismantled pointless pre-kick-off portal when Josh de Silva was sent off after just 11 minutes. And we’d started so brightly, too. Indeed it took Newcastle ages to score.

In ten minutes’ time Josh’ll be back in the dressing room again.

Midway through the second half Christian Eriksen came on to massive applause from all. To come back from near death as he has. Ivan Toney came on too, but it was too little too late. You got a taste of what’s to come with Eriksen’s dominance of the midfield and exquisite passing. You certainly noticed the whole team lift.

Before this game Newcastle were one of the shit cushions below us. Now we’ve become one of the shit cushions below them. Thomas and the players still did the walk around the edge of the pitch. Christian Eriksen spent more time than anyone applauding the fans and was the last to go down the tunnel. Does anyone else think he looks a little bit like Budgie from the Banshees?

Next time…

All this talk about going down, when there are still 11 games to play. Thing is, when you haven’t won for such a long time you wonder where the hell it’s going to come from. Well, next week at Norwich. Obviously.

And they’re off!

Brentford 2 Arsenal 0– Friday 13 August 2021

The first Premiership game of the season. Our first top-flight game since handlebar moustaches went out of fashion. An emotional time for fans of all clubs as stadiums welcomed everyone back after more than a year of nearly every match played behind closed doors.

For Brentford, the feeling was even more intense, with the additional heady cocktail of promotion to the biggest league in the world, and departure from one of the loveliest grounds in the world.

Sergei Canos scored for Brentford on 22 minutes. We erupted. ‘Hey-ay Sergi! Ooh ah! I wanna know-oh-oh, how d’you score that goal?’

There was a minute’s applause for Robert Rowan at 28 minutes. He was technical director at Brentford and died three years ago, when he was only 28.

Norgaard got the second goal on 73 minutes, after clever positioning by Pontus and abysmal defending by Arsenal. It was good to see fans of both clubs applaud Saka when Arsenal brought him on, after all the bad stuff that he went through after the Euros final.

It seems Brentford is doing all it can to involve the fans and make it loud. So they must think it makes a difference. Not that they needed to do much on this joyous and emotional evening.

But where were Arsenal? Dunno, but we knew where Brentford were… ‘We are top of the league, I said we are top of the league’, we sang. Because, for 15 hours or so, we really were top of the league.

Crystal Palace 0 Brentford 0 – Saturday 21 August 2021

All I knew about Palace fans before this game was that Mark Steele is one, and so is a bloke I used to work with. They say the away fans love a sing-song. So much so that they are always offering to sing one for you. Oh, and the unlikely rivalry with Brighton.

The journey there was much quicker and easier than we expected. Train from Brentford, quick change at Clapham Junction, then non-stop to Selhurst Park and a 10-minute walk to the ground. There was an old piano in one of the station passages. Inspired fly tipping or street art? We walked past Selhurst Railway Club, a yesteryear drinking establishment.

It’s an old fashioned stadium too, with no clock or scoreboard visible to away fans, never mind a screen showing replays and all that. In the away fans section there was very little leg room, just like in the old days. But it didn’t matter, we were all stood up throughout the game anyway, singing our little hearts out.

The home fans at each end were each given a blue or red flag to wave, coordinated to give alternate vertical red and blue stripes. These were waved before the start of the game. Hmm. Maybe it’s a first home game of the season thing? It was also the first home game for Palace’s new manager, the Arsenal legend Patrick Vieira. Good luck to him, he might need it.

But… Wot! No eagle? Kayla the American Bald Eagle would fly across the stadium before each home game but sadly passed away last year.

Palace have a drummer, behind the goal at the singing end. He is surrounded by a phalanx of mates who sometimes bounce up and down in time to his drumming. It’s a bit weird, not quite a pogo. But it did amuse the Brentford fans.

Wonder how many Eagle-eyed fans noticed the three factual errors in the match day programme snippet about Brentford’s previous game. The result was wrong, the venue was wrong and the date was wrong. Apart from that…

Brentford more than held their own in a game that only came to life near the end, when Palace missed a few good chances. Palace seemed subdued, and so did their fans. None of them Glad All Over.

Thomas applauds Bees fans. We applaud back.

Once out of the ground we rambled northwards through the streets of south London and had a posh pub pint in Streatham.

Brentford 3 Forest Green Rovers 1 – Tuesday 24 August 2021 [EFL Cup aka Carabao Cup]

Big queues trying to get in because of problems with the new turnstiles. So we missed the first four minutes. One of many glitches at the moment along with problems with ticketing and ticket delivery. At least the club communicates well.

We might have been better off missing the entire first half… Brentford’s play was stuttered, disjointed. We gave the ball away a lot. Even our singing wasn’t together. FGR deserved to be 1–0 up at half time. Only a few of our first team regulars were playing, but most of the rest of the side that started tonight usually come on at some point so it wasn’t that weakened a side that FGR were matching man for man.

Overheard in the row behind at half time. ‘So where is Forest Green?’ asked one. Good question. ‘Somewhere around London, I think’ said another. ‘Isn’t it in Birmingham?’ said yet another. There was also mention of their number 3, who has very thick thighs, which is maybe why he’d rolled his shorts up on the inside so they looked like short-shorts. Like Aussie rules players wear.

In the second half Brentford were better. We gradually brought on the big guns. Normal chanting resumed. Final score 3–1 to the Bees.

FGR are eco-friendly and sustainable, rumoured to mark pitches with hummus not paint. Match day grub is all vegan. The kit they wore tonight was a cool green with a few black camouflage markings. They’re near the top of League 2 and play very good football. Reckon they’ll get promoted before long.

Oh, and Forest Green is in Nailsworth. To my shame I don’t know where that is either. But I will look it up.

Aston Villa 1 Brentford 1 – Saturday 28 August 2021

A weekend break in Birmingham and our first visit to Villa Park since 2016 when we drew 1–1 with them in the Championship, during Roberto di Matteo’s brief spell as their manager.

As for the Brentford extended family – Villa manager Dean Smith and players Ollie Watkins and Ezri Konsa are all recent ex-Bees. Ollie even got applause from us when he came on. And when Ezri was down for a few minutes, singing bants with nearby Villa fans replaced the usual booing.

The stadium seems much nicer than last time. Maybe because it’s a sunny day in summer rather than a rainy night in autumn. Maybe it’s because our seats aren’t poked away in a corner. Maybe it’s because they gave the place a bit of a clean during lockdown.

The goals: Ivan Toney got his first Prem goal early on and the impressive Buendia equalised not long after. I thought we were lucky to hang on for the draw. We thank our lucky stars for super sweeper keeper David Raya. So, three games in and we’re tenth. Not bad at all.

The long walk back to the city centre started in the park right next to the stadium where we came across an architectural beauty.

Birmingham’s rich industrial history is visible all around. I never realised just how canal central it is. And as for the city’s heavy metal heritage, look no further than the bench on Black Sabbath Bridge…

Next up: Brighton, Wolves, Oldham and… Liverpool!

Tag: arsenal

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