Recreating the glory days of Buster Brown and Dickie Girling
Seventy-three years ago – 26,730 days to be precise – a 2-1 away defeat confirmed Brentford’s relegation from the top-flight of English football. They have not been back since. Apparently it takes some clubs longer than others to recover from the shame of losing to Sunderland.
Brentford seemed to have finally gotten it out of their system earlier this month, mind you, when they stormed up the Championship table like a side convinced they were on course to recreate the glory days of Buster Brown and Dickie Girling. Automatic promotion to the Premier League was theirs for the taking, all they had to do was not get distracted by West Brom’s admittedly entertaining attempt to recreate the glory days of Harold Lloyd. Eyes on the ball, Brentford, eyes on the ball!
D’oh!
On the plus side, three straight defeats has set the scene for a potentially beautiful farewell to Griffin Park, which has been Brentford’s home for 116 years and will, on Wednesday, host the Bees one last time before they decamp to a spruce new base – via a play-off final at Wembley if they manage to see off Swansea City. The Welsh side hold a 1-0 lead going into the second leg of the semi-final but Brentford general Thomas Frank says his side are ready to fight.
“I can feel inside my body how my emotions are and when I speak to the players and speak to the staff, we are in total combat mode,” blasted Thomas the Tank. “We will come flying,” he continued in a press conference that, according to reports, was not held at one of the four pubs famously attached to the stadium. “We will do everything we can to make it a last magical moment at Griffin Park that can stay with fans forever. I can promise them that when we are done, I know that I personally will carry my players off the pitch if they cannot do that themselves.”
LIVE ON BIG WEBSITE
Join Paul Doyle for minute-byminute updates of Brentford 3-1 Swansea (3-2 agg) in the second leg of the Championship play-off semi-final.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“Some people can start a fight in an empty house; Iago Aspas can start a fiestain an empty stadium” – just one of the many lovely lines in this year’s Sid awards. You can read the rest of them here.
RECOMMENDED LISTENING
The latest Football Weekly is right here. And you should listen to this Forgotten Stories of Football podcast on the English Super Cup, too.
FIVER LETTERS
“I have long admired the cartoons of David Squires and his ability to draw hundreds of different real-life people and make them instantly recognisable. However, I felt that his latest drawing of Jose Mourinho looking happy seemed completely unrealistic. I know that cartoonists should be free to use their imagination, but I guess talent only goes so far” – Tim Scanlan.
“In reviewing Big Website’s picks for the League (one out of 20 correct) I am reminded of the old joke: Two gamblers are sitting around reviewing their day. One says: I lost $5,000 on baseball today, $3,000 on football, $2,000 on basketball and $8,000 on the horses. The other replies: Well what about the hockey game tonight? To which the other replies: Are you kidding? I don’t know anything about hockey!” – Paul Benveniste.
“I hope Villa fans now fully appreciate the one point they got from their so-called ‘goalless’ draw against Sheffield United at the restart of the season. I note that VARdy got the Golden Boot – the Blades were certainly on the receiving end a few times over the season (sorry, Spurs, we were owed one). It’s good that I’m not bitter …” – Trevor Townson.
Send your letters to the.boss@theguardian.com. And you can always tweet The Fiver via @guardian_sport. Today’s winner of our prizeless letter o’the day is … Tim Scanlan.
NEWS, BITS AND BOBS
Paul Cook has decided to board the good ship Do One after resigning as Wigan manager. The club were relegated from the Championship after a 12-point deduction for but will hear their appeal against the punishment on Friday.
West Ham are pursuing, in the nicest way possible, QPR star Eberechi Eze and could pay around £20m for the forward.
UK football fans will finally peel themselves off the sofa for the first time in months and actually go through a turnstile for the Irish Cup final at Windsor Park in Belfast on Friday. The date for the rest of us is looking like 1 October, if sports minister Nigel Huddleston is to be believed.
Crystal Palace forward Wilfried Zaha admits he is “scared” to check his social media accounts because of racial abuse. “Every time I’m scared to even look up my direct messages because it could be filled with anything,” he told