The fourth away league trip of the season for the Whites and another bloody marathon journey for team and fans. Off to Griffin Park were in September 2011 North End won 3-1 with goals from Procter, Mellor and Hume, at the time we were in the process of racking seven straight league wins which would end with us ending up with Westley as a manager. Since that victory Brentford have extracted revenge every time we have played them think it is five victories on the trot. So obvious that will extend to six on Saturday or by some miricle we get a point or a win. To be fair the Bees are one of the more entertaining sides in the league, play decent football under ex Walsall manager Dean Smith. At the moment they lie 8th in the table having taken a point from Villa last night, just a point outside the play offs, they have only lost once a single goal defeat at Rotherham, have won two out of three at home only dropping a point to Wednesday and last Saturdaythey had an impressive win at Brighton. They have a cosmopolitan line up these days with several lads being brought in from Europe, no Alan Judge though still recovering from his leg break at Ipswich at the back end of last season. Up front ex Rochdale striker Scott Hogan is knocking them in at a rare rate, strange how these types of players North End tend to miss. For North End this could be one of the last visits to Griffinn as the Bees are apparently in the process of buiding a new stadium, with a pub on every corner it is a very unique ground although last season one of the pubs was shut due to them selling stuff which came in bags and I don't mean crisps. After the welcome win on Tuesday it should be same again for North End but this is Grayson we are talking about he sets up differently away from home tends to go 3511. So we shall wait in anticipation for his team selection, possibly no Beckford, Cunningham got a few knocks on Tuesday but should be fit otherwise a fully fit squad apart from the two long term injuries. Train at 10 am followed by a trail across London,match report Sunday. Brentford last three DWD Next three Wolverhampton Wanderers A Reading H Wigan Athletic H PNE Last three LLW Next three Bournemouth A (Cup) Wigan Athletic (H) Birmingham City A
If Carlsberg did away game they wouldn't have done this one, a rather long day ended with North End coming second as a rampnat Brentford kept up their record of beating North End, this was number 6 onthe bounce. The joy of a football fan, awake at 3.45am even had time to let the four legged Jihadi's who I live with out for an early morning masacre of local wildlife. Train was on time, arrived in the nations's capitl just after 12, so time to have a quick butchers at some heritage, so of to the Oval we went. (Surrey had a mare yesterday as well) Arrived at Griffin Park and have to say decent stewards, guy with the dreadlocks was a top man. North End were unchanged and started well, better side for the firstr twenty minutes although in truth didn't really test Bentley in the Bees net. Thenthe home side began to get in the game, their passing was far more crisper than ours and they also get the ball into the box faster, whilst we dawdle on the edge of box. The first goal came from a cross from the right after a decent passing move, Hogan had acres of space, no idea where the defence was, also questions of Lindegaard, he sort of didn't move apart from give the impression he was having a dump as Hogan passed the ball into the net. To be fair to home though as Brentford dominated he pulled of a great save to stop Clarke chesting in an own goal from about two yards. North End had a chance on half time but Bentley saved well from Doyle. Second half North End started really well, Doyle shot over and was then denied by a close range effort excellently saved again by Bentley, after the initial surge the Bees started to impose their game on us again, had a couple of efforts which went narrowly wide. They doubled the lead with 16 minutes to go, not great defending from a set piece that we didn't clear and a keepr who appeared to lose all bearings as to where he should have been, Dean scored. North End should have reduced the arrears when Makienok swung one his giant legs at a vert decent chance, he missed the ball completely and with it went North End's last chance of salvaging anything from the game The last ten minutes can only be describe as stunningly inept although in fairness North End were down to 10 following Vermijl's hamstring injury, with all three substitutes used basically it was game up. The first of the three late gooals, Clarke's attempted back pass never remotely looked like getting to the keeper, Hogan nipped in and rounded Lindegaard and in she went. In the spirit of generosity with a Bees player looking likely to sore a minute later, Humphry's cut out the middle man and scored for them, the last was a decent goal though, with a swift fast passing move cutting through the remnents of North End's fast disappearing defence. In fairness though until the late horror show we hadn't played that badly but we really need to speed up our game way to slow at times. Grayson copped a volley of angriness from some of those that were left and apparently gave it back. So back to Euston, last train back to Preston, full of alcoholically challenged away fans, train stopped at Crewe for a bit of anti social behaviour, home at 11.30pm. The life of a football supporter is sometimes full of poop, today was that day. Brentford 5 Preston North End 0 Att 10,000ish Brentford manager Dean Smith: "I thought we started both halves slowly. There was a little bit of me that thought that might happen because of the Villa game in midweek. "We looked tired but we grew into both halves and started to play our game. "He (Scott Hogan) was magnificent and gave a real captain's display. He led by example, won his headers, was good on the ball and drive us on in the first half when we looked a little languid at times." Preston boss Simon Grayson: "We started well and were on top, created good chances and counter attacked well and then Brentford scored against the run of play. "We started positively but then they scored their second and it bred a lack of responsibility through the team. From then on it was a kamikaze performance. "You have to play with your head and not your heart but we bombed on looking to get back into it when we didn't need to. At that point it's all about players taking responsibility on the pitch."
So the analysis is...NE was mostly crap, Brentford mostly superior. Should rest Lindegaard and let th other guy have a go.
