Derby, Preston and Sunderland | Vital Football

Derby, Preston and Sunderland

Kentbee

Vital Reserves Team
I reckon these three games will shape our play off challenge, feel we will need 6 points at least from them to maintain a push. Less than that and it may be mid table coasters for us.

Big game today but the pressure is more on Derby maybe. A point would be OK for us but not for them.
 
Six from two then.

Apparently we matched them for first twenty minutes but I am not so sure. We still didn't create any problems, apart from one shot from Flo that he skied when he should have at least hit target.
Am seeing many conflicting views on the sending off. Many saying it was just a hard tackle others it was two footed. I can only say from seeing it as it happened, right in front of the cameras. I thought it was one foot, got the ball first but he left the ground and lunged in. I really don't know. You could sort of see he was going to lunge in though after riding the first couple of tackles doggedly. No matter. It put us on back foot for seventy minutes and they had a good penalty shout not long after.
Seriously thought we were in for four or five hammering. Texted Rebel to say this could get embarrassing and seconds later we were one down. Seconds later two. Oh God. Then they seemed to ease off. We were there for the taking. Why? Thank you, Derby.
Second half we seemed to show a bit more about us but our usual passing game wasn't really there, and they were easily dealing with us. Thought they dominated midfield and that put pressure on our back four who looked dodgy at times, especially one who is just too easy to get past and I would much rather see Nico there even if he is only makeshift. Just when I was thinking we've at least drawn the second half, they got a penalty.

Got to say our fans were brilliant. Two down, down to ten men and they just kept going. Couldn't hear Derby fans for most of the match.

Oh well. Here's to three off Preston, but that's no way an easy task. They are on a good run. Fingers crossed for Saturday.
 
A late call for me to go to Derby and I did which I regret as I didn’t enjoy it much. I thought we matched them for first 20 minutes, you could see it was going to be tough but no doubt with 11 men we could have got a point at least. It all fell apart after the sending off although second half we improved dramatically and played some really good stuff but we remained fairly toothless up front, in these situations you have to take every chance that comes your way as they will be limited. We didn’t.

As for the sending off I thought it was two players going equally for the ball which Canos got their first, just. In that scenario one player is often going to come off worse but I saw nothing malicious or over agressive from Canos , in fact their player was higher off the ground than him and had he won the ball would probably have sen red. As DS said the situation was not helped by their players surrounding the referee.

Let’s hope we can get back on track against Preston.
 
Ref is in a real difficult one and another one that shows VAR will prove nothing at times. I have watched it over and over, and cannot make my mind up, Kent.
 
Agree with you CB about VAR, it showed ( yet again) that VAR will not "solve everything".
 
An enjoyable game yesterday with a contrast in style on display. We started slow but got more and more into the game. There was an element of luck about their goal but things have been going like that for us lately.

Thought we worked our way back into the game with our usual passing and moving style and the equaliser was a neatly worked goal and well deserved.

Rest of the game was pretty much one way especially after the sending off. No idea why O'Neil thought it was "soft" the second booking was clear as they come and he should stop his players trying to slow down the game for the first booking, their player was a burk for getting sent off.

Can't help feeling our play off challenge is slipping away.

 
Agree, Kent. Am beginning to lose faith. Didn't understand the changes at the back yesterday. I like Clarke but prefer him right back to left and that gives us Barbet. Is Mepham injured? He's done nothing to merit being dropped so I am assuming that until someone tells me different.

They were taking it in turns to niggle and kick us, they were, to be kind, a bit physical and I was thinking early on I wouldn't be surprised to see them get a red. That or one of ours would make one mistake and be the one to get it....you know the story.

O'Neil made a bit of an arse of himself complaining over it. That and the goal, which was offside. Wasn't sure at the time but looking again, just. No one is playing him on. Didn't think Egan was last man either so a booking was right.

Thought Maupay put in a good shift and things just didn't fall right for him, a great save rather than bad miss.

As a side note, I am disgusted with the club for the way they treated my dad before the game. He's been coming since the forties and is in his eighties, travelling up from Pompey every week, bringing three generations of supporters with him at times and he turned up for his usual early sit in the bar and chat with his mates. They had arrived early as they had to take some equipment up for the club and hand it in at the office. The last time there was a meeting about the stadium going on in there, there has been no problem. They've sat other end of room and never even mentioned the meeting. This time, one of the "elite" as he puts it, got a steward to throw them out, despite being told it was cold and raining and he has a heart problem and they couldn't give a monkey's what they were talking about and had been party to club secrets before and said nothing but couldn't hear them from where they were anyway
Don't they have a board room for meetings? (They do) Don't they have a Director's Bar for meetings? (They do). So why hold a meeting in the supporters bar and treat the fans like dirt when they over run? My dad is not happy and feels the way they've been treated is the final nail. They family club feeling has been drifting away the last couple of seasons and for him this just topped it.
 
Big mistake by some ahole who is feeling important for the first time in his life. I suggest you make a formal complaint to give them a chance to put it right. If they don't you've answered your Dad's question, but you should give them the chance. The have a customer charter and the contact on the web´site is as below -

Customers should contact the Supporter Liaison Officer with their questions, complaints, concerns and feedback and it will be that person's responsibility to ensure that all issues are dealt with within the terms of the Customer Charter by the relevant department or persons concerned.

Email: enquiries@brentfordfc.com

Post: Attention Supporter Relations Officer, Brentford FC, Braemar Road, Brentford, London, TW8 0NT
Phone: 020 847 2511 (Monday – Friday, 9am to 5pm)
 
Cheers, Spanish. He is writing to Mark Devlin. Sean is giving him all the contacts he needs but I appreciate your help. He is giving them the chance to correct what happened, I hasten to add the bar staff were excellent and were equally annoyed by what happened. Half the problem lies in the second paragraph there.....and we've talked about it on here before with Mr Chapman who got very narked with me in particular (in a friendly way, Mark and I go back a long way and can be sh*tty to each other but still laugh about it). The word "customer" That is how we are being treated now. Not as supporters but customers. Not a good move to even use that word for a club.
Thank you so much for your input and links. I appreciate it.

I was wrong by the way, he often takes four generations of fans with him, not three lol! Some would call that grand child abuse haha
 
Yes, this thing about customers not supporters is a tricky one. When I am on the trains I would rather be a passenger than a customer, at least it sounds like you are going somewhere.

The thing about the word customer is that it should get the people in the business to think and act in the right way, after all football supporters have been screwed over forever.

For example, in that room were some salaried employees of BFC, elite or not, and maybe a supplier or two, and a customer of 50 or 60 or more years standing who has brought friends and family to the club and paid through the gate.

Who is the most important person in the room? It should take about 2 nanoseconds to answer that.

Apart from whatever they decide to do or say to your Dad, they should get hold of the person who threw him out, explain to him slowly and clearly why he was very stupid, tell him not to do it again and ask him what he should do next. If the word apologise doesn't come up he should be earmarked for early exit regardless of how clever he thinks he is.

Sorry to go on. but I used to teach this stuff. Interested to know what happens.
 
Glad we made the trip to the North East. Like most first trip to the Stadium of Liight and could be a while before we go again as they look relegation fodder for sure.

Not to take away from a commanding and exquisite first half from us when we played them off the park and took advantage of our dominance to score two good goals. Good too to see Maupay get a quality poachers goal.

Second half was a more equal contest but a professional and composed half saw us home with some ease.

Play off challenge back on again? Who knows but performances like make it great times to be Bee.
 
If we can play like that first half in the next two games we could be well back into it.

Excellent display and it was hard to pick a MOM. Sunderland didn't even get into our area until 18 minutes we dominated so much. Really pleased for Maupay when he set up the first but even better when he got a real striker's goal. Could have been more, maybe should have. Felt they only needed one and the crowd would be back on side and we've all seen that episode before this season.

Bees fans were excellent. Outsang the home fans as the team outplayed the hosts.

Would love to have gone. Was cheap enough one way and only two hours plus a short train ride......coming back was via Las Palmas! With a six to eight hour stop over! Hopefully do it somewhere more convenient next year
 
Hi all, if you're in need of a laugh, watch John O'Sh*te (as their fans call him) and his committed do-or-die 'defending' for both goals.

And they let Egan go.