Wednesday 1 February 2012

Alexander the Great Conquers Wycombe

I’ve said it many times: Brentford is a club in progression. No more was that apparent than on Saturday afternoon against Wycombe, where some quite simply brilliant football saw us run out 5-2 winners. Yes, I did say 5-2. I was, and still am, delighted with the performance and result, as I’m sure many of the Griffin Park faithful are, but what makes me even happier is the view from Mr. Uwe Rosler. Rosler stated in his post-match interview, "It was good to get five goals ... there were still some areas where we need to improve massively to stay in that top 10.” This is the stance of a man who purely wants to be the best. I admire him for that.
A man that is on fire at the moment, not literally of course, is Gary Alexander. All of this recent talk about finding a striker seems to have pushed Alexander into the form of his life, bagging a hat-trick on Saturday as a result. His 3rd strike was one that I’m sure even Messi would be proud of. His partnership with Clayton Donaldson definitely seems to be bearing fruits now, and my goodness do they taste good! Donaldson, although not scoring as regularly as I’m sure he would like, is instrumental in Alexander’s current form. His movement off and on the ball is crucial in taking players out of the game, and judging by the amount of fouls on him by the Wycombe players he’s more than a handful when the brick house is running at the opposition. Hopefully Alexander can hit at least 20 goals and propel us back in the play-off picture.
The only sour point of the game was the fact that Wycombe scored twice against us when they merely did not deserve a single thing based on their performance. A lucky first goal where the assistant referee did not seem to understand what to do when he puts his flag up and a sloppy second goal denied the sensational Richard Lee a clean sheet in a game where he made some stunning saves. I had the absolute pleasure of meeting Richard after the game where he signed my copy of ‘Graduation’, and I must say he is a complete and total gentleman and deserves all the praise he is getting at Brentford. A distinctive save he made was a double save from what must have been point blank range, thereby minimising the goal scoring of Wycombe to just their two (lucky) goals.
It seems to me that Brentford are now coming into their stride. Although we lost the game at Huddersfield last week, the team put in a very good performance, and on another day could easily have walked away from the Galpharm with all three points. The ability to put 5 past a struggling team is something that Brentford have not possessed in recent years, and at this crucial stage in the season it’s important that we are able to score goals as the playoff picture may come down to goal difference. It is that tight around there.
I have been putting off writing this article until today, as the legendary transfer deadline has now passed. Of course, being a Brentford supporter it’s not as manic and exciting as it may be for some of the bigger clubs, but I was keen to keep an eye on a couple of coming and goings. Firstly, I am thrilled to see that Karleigh Osborne hasn’t left Griffin Park, and secondly there was no signing of that “oh-so-needed” striker. We did however, sign a goalkeeper in the form of Antoine Gounet and a development squad player who goes by the name of Antonio German, who our friends (and I use that term loosely) from Sheperd’s Bush may recognise. However, I am not entirely sure why we have signed a new goalkeeper, as I can’t see him replacing Richard Lee as first choice keeper, nor can I see him replacing Simon Moore. I’m sure if he does play for us he will prove more than adequate in the goal mouth.
Finally, a look ahead to the game on Saturday against Preston North End. I hope to see a better performance against them than I did in the reverse tie, which was a 3-1 loss. However, if we play like we have played for the past two games than they will most definitely have their hands full, especially with Donaldson and Alexander on the pitch. It’s safe to say that the team we possess are more than capable of going up to Preston and doing the job required, all I can say is that I hope we keep a clean sheet and smash in a few goals!
A special note must go out to my girlfriend, Emma Walsh, who correctly predicted that we would score 5 goals against Wycombe last Saturday. I wish she would predict that every weekend, maybe we’d be the country’s top goal scorers!