Home-loving Bees must find a cure for their travel sickness
A big month of away games awaits Brentford, so it is even more crucial they quickly find a way to end their winless run on the road.
The Bees have one of the best home records in League One, despite Saturday’s disappointing draw with Hartlepool, but are the only team outside the bottom five to have failed to win on their travels so far this season.
They have drawn five and lost two of their League matches away from Griffin Park and went out of the Capital One Cup at Walsall.
Three of the draws have come from losing positions, which shows the resilience of the side, but recently matches have been going in the opposite direction.
Brentford failed to hold on to the lead at both Scunthorpe and Doncaster, their only two away games in October, bringing home just one point from the two long trips north.
And another lead went begging at home to the bottom-placed Monkey Hangers at the weekend, although four days earlier the Bees had come from behind to win a game for the first time under Uwe Rosler when they snatched an injury-time victory over Coventry.
Rosler said after Saturday’s game that his side were not seeing out matches properly and that they should be playing the ball into the corners in the closing minutes rather than trying to find another goal.
You can understand that sentiment after the loss of another two points but wary Brentford fans will cast their minds back to similar tactics used by Martin Allen near the end of his second full season in charge, in 2005/2006.
Chasing the second promotion spot, they started playing keep-ball in the corners in the closing stages of matches.
If memory serves me correctly, the tactic started with around 10 minutes to go of the Easter Monday match against Blackpool with Brentford 1-0 up but they paid the price when the Seasiders snatched an 89th-minute equaliser.
Then after Kevin O’Connor put them ahead in the 84th minute of the final home game against, ironically, Hartlepool, Brentford immediately started playing into the corners again.
The visitors levelled in the 90th minute and the four points dropped from those two matches cost the club automatic promotion after they finished three points behind second-placed Colchester.
October was a good month for Brentford with the loss at Doncaster the only defeat in seven matches.
The return from the five league and cup home games during the month was three victories and two draws which stretched the side’s unbeaten run in TW8 to eight matches.
It also took Brentford into the southern quarter-finals of the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy, where they travel to Southend in December, thanks to the second defeat of a Crawley team full of ex-Brentford players in four days.
Before that trip to Roots Hall though, they must negotiate their way through a series of tricky fixtures in November – four of which are away from home.
They start with the sort of match all League clubs hate –visiting a non-League outfit in the FA Cup, especially one that is in form.
This Saturday Brentford travel to Conference South high-flyers Boreham Wood, currently second in their league and on an unbeaten run of seven games in all competitions.
ITV cameras are there to feature the game in their Saturday night highlights programme and sniffing an upset after the Bees’ defeat to Wrexham last season, but hopefully they will be able to turn the spotlight on someone else.
The unbalanced fixture list then sees Rosler’s men visit Portsmouth for the first time in 19 years, followed by trips to Preston and Paolo di Canio’s Swindon inside four days.
It is a shame that the Pompey and Town matches are on Tuesday nights, which will inevitably produce a lower attendance in the away end than there would have been on a Saturday.
Visiting Griffin Park are Carlisle, beaten 4-0 live on Sky in last season’s fixture, and Sheffield United, the only remaining unbeaten team in League One.
Finally a word on the strikers situation at Griffin Park
In last month’s column I said the squad looked a little light in the attacking department with only three front men on the books.
Sadly that proved to be the case when Farid El Alagui suffered the serious knee injury which could well rule him out for the rest of the season.
He has been replaced in the short-term by on-loan Huddersfield youngster Jimmy Spencer, a player Brentford fans should be “very excited” about according to Terriers youth chief Steve Eyre.
Spencer has so far started three games on the bench but Saturday’s cup tie could see him make his first start.
Also a word for Clayton Donaldson and Paul Hayes, both of whom had difficult moments during October.
Donaldson suffered alleged racist abuse at the hands of an idiot on Twitter after the game at Scunthorpe, while Hayes bounced back from a disappointing night against Coventry to register his first goals for the club with two against Hartlepool.
Brentford players and fans rallied round top scorer Donaldson, who is the club’s ambassador for the One Game One Community programme.
And Rosler stuck by Hayes, and was rewarded with his double at the weekend.
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