Tuesday 17h September 2024
At Brentford (Gtech) Community Stadium
EFL League Cup Third Round
Brentford (3) 3
Fabio Carvello 17
Mikkel Damsgaard 26
Christian Norgaard 45
Leyton Orient (1) 1
Brandon Cooper 11
Attendance: 13,634
Brentford: Valdimarsson; Roerslev, van den Berg (Ji-soo 76), Mee, Meghoma (Yogane 84); Nørgaard (Konak 62), Trevitt (Mbeumo 76), Yarmoliuk; Damsgaard (Lewis-Potter 76), Carvalho; Schade
Unused subs - Cox, Pinnock, Collins, Janelt
Leyton Orient: Keeley; James, Simpson, Cooper, Sweeney; Warrington; Donley (Agyei 72), Ball (Pratley 71), Obiero (Beckles 72), Jaiyesimi (Galbraith 54); Perkins (Kelman 54)
Unused subs - Hemming, Graham, O’Neill, Clare
It's four years (and nineteen days) since Brentford played their first ever game at the newly built Community Stadium, hosting Oxford United in a pre-season friendly, which they drew 2-2.
Five days later, the first 'competitive' fixture here saw Wycombe Wanderers visit the Bees in an EFL League Cup first-round tie. Once again, Brentford drew, 1-1, but they progressed to the second round by virtue of winning the resultant penalty shoot-out (4-2).
Fast-forward to September 19th, 2020. Thomas Frank's side beat Huddersfield Town 3-0 in the inaugural football league (Championship) fixture at this new stadium, following their relocation from Griffin Park, which had served as the club's home ground since 1904.
Hallelujah! There was no need for me to unnecessarily join an expensive membership scheme, that I wouldn't ever use more than once, for this was a cheap and cheerful on general sale ticket night, in the West London suburban borough of Hounslow this fine autumnal evening, with bargains galore to be had.
League One's plucky representatives: Leyton Orient, traversed sixteen miles (give or take) across the city of London, from East to West, to take on Premier League side Brentford FC, in this League Cup Third Round tie.
My ticket thriftiness was offset somewhat when I entered the Express Tavern (near Kew Bridge station) and spotted a choice beverage I was willing to break my teetotal abstinence for... just this once, you understand.
"How much!!?? Seriously!?" Christ on a bike! Is that really the going rate for a pint of goodly ale these days? Enjoyable as it was... that's me (and my bank balance) back on the wagon again.
If you should ever alight at Kew Bridge, with a bit of a thirst on, unless you called into the Nat-West en route, brandishing a sawn-off and wearing a stocking over your head, then there is a Sainsbury's across the road from the station and plenty of pleasant and ambient spots to sit beside the nearby River Thames and consume your liquid refreshments, at your leisure.
It's probably not such a desirable option when the weather isn't as agreeable as it was around 6pm today, but the riverbank appeared to be the preferred choice for numerous cheery souls, on this balmy evening, whereas the public house, quaint as it was, was never unduly busy.
The Community Stadium is literally right next to Kew Bridge station, up the exit steps (or lift), turn left and there it is. The Express is immediately right as you leave the station.
Whereas Griffin Park was famed for having a pub on all four corners (back in the day when beer was still an affordable commodity), the Community Stadium has it's own quirk, inasmuch as it sits inside a triangle of railway lines. This kind of ubiquitous space-filling trivia is all the rage don't you know? You'll all be thanking me when this crops up in your next pub quiz and you've got a massive advantage and head-start over the plebs that haven't been keeping abreast of this blog (or it's Substack variant).
I'd imagine that it would be fairly problematic to increase the stadium capacity of 17,250 by very much, given the tucked-away nature of this asymmetrically-shaped arena. For the record, though that seems rather low by Premier League standards, that figure is roughly 4,750 more than Brentford's previous home used to hold at the time it was vacated.
Although back in the days of yore, Griffin Park had housed considerably more spectators than that, in fact, a record crowd of 38,678 once watched a FA Cup sixth round tie there, played on February 24 1949, against Leicester City.
Apparently, the gate receipts from that cup-tie were very similar to what it would have cost to buy a round of drinks in the Express tonight. You live and learn, eh?
The non-uniform multi-coloured seating around the ground was apparently installed that way to create a trick on the eye, for purposes of hoodwinking spectators watching televised games; whereby if the seats were all red and there were gaps in the crowd then they would be clearly visible, but the mosaic of differently shaded seats would disguise this and create the illusion that there wasn't a below capacity crowd present.
The irony of this is that Brentford are now a firmly established Premier League team (with 11,370 season ticket holders and numerous additional club members) who seldom have many seats remaining unsold on any given top-flight match day.
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Orient came out the blocks like some modern day re-enactment of the Charge of the Light Brigade. Alas, their attention to recreating every single precise detail of the Battle of Balaclava (contested in October 1854, during the Crimean War) was immaculate... and we all know how that particular suicidal mission ended.
Buoyed on by some early gains into enemy terrain and boosted still further when Jamie Donley saw his shot deflect narrowly wide off of Christian Norgaard's outstretched leg, the O's took the lead in the eleventh minute when Diallang Jaiyesimi cut in from the right flank and struck a shot that was blocked, but the loose ball fell kindly to Tom James on the touchline, who looked up and saw Brandon Cooper lurking with intent, just beyond the back post, on the edge of the six-yard box (obviously Brentford hadn't spotted him though, maybe they thought he was sky-blue coloured seat), the right back promptly delivered a precision cross and the unmarked Cooper gleefully accepted the simplest of tasks and stroked the ball into the back of the net.
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Strains of: "We're the famous Leyton Orient and we're going to Wembley!", emanated from the corner occupied by the jubilant away supporters.
I pondered who they might be going to see there, Taylor Swift maybe?
But hey! You could forgive them their (very) temporary state of over-exuberance, in light of the fact that the visitors have made a stuttering start to the season and currently occupy a fairly uninspiring twenty-second place in the League One table. Make hay while the sun shines n' all that.
Was there a giant-killing in the offing?
Would you actually call Brentford giants?
Well, although they aren't actually one of the blue-chip fat-cats of English football, at this present moment in time, they're a fairly plump one.
Either way, these plucky underdogs would have to buzz off with their temporarily heightened cup final aspirations, because they were about to get stung by their hosts and suffer considerable losses in a swiftly and neatly executed pincers movement, as the home side swarmed all over them and made a Bee-line for their goal for the remainder of the half.
My profuse apologies, the pun-filter on this antiquated piece of crap laptop is currently out of date and kaputt.
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| Ooh! Look, there's Brandon Cooper (6) lurking with intent. |
Brentford have recently signed Fabio Carvalho from Liverpool in a transfer that could cost them up to £27.5 million in time, including add-on clauses, following an initial outlay £22.5m million.
Bloomin' heck! That's a whole lot of money to be chucking about, for a club who have of late been the envy of many as they demonstrated how to empire build on solid foundations of financially sustainable growth.
But taking into consideration the fee paid for Carvalho is only a fraction of the combined money received from Al Ahli and Arsenal for Ivan Toney and David Raya respectively, you'd have to applaud tonight's hosts for continuing their ethos of good-housekeeping, albeit on a far grander scale than anybody might have envisaged they would be indulging in just a short few years ago.
Hmm, just maybe, they are a big club after all, even though they still maintain a humble and homely charm.
Anyway, I digress, so let's quickly get back to the the action on the pitch, without further ado.
The Orient lead lasted just six minutes and by half-time they were effectively chasing the game, as Brentford punished them severely for adopting such an open approach.
It was lively and decent enough effort from the visitors all told, but the Bees had far too much finesse and class for Richie Wellens' side to put them to the sword, as the home side emphatically stamped their authority on proceedings, with three well taken goals before the break.
Carvalho demonstrated why Brentford were prepared to pay so much for him, with a sublime opening goal (his first for the club), when Kevin Schade looked odds on to score, but had his effort blocked by Josh Keeley's leg, the ball ricocheted upwards and instinctively the Portuguese Under 21 striker acrobatically twisted in the air and fired home an overhead kick. Wow! Pick that one out.
Carvello weighed in with an assist for the Bees second, looping a dipping cross towards Mikel Damsgaard, who firmly planted his header beyond the reach of Keeley.
On the stroke of half-time, with Orient stretched all over the place just outside their area, Christian Norgaard thumped an unstoppable diagonal pile-driver of a shot into the right hand corner of the visitors goal, at which point Keeley was perhaps entitled to ask his teammates if any of them had actually been assigned any defensive duties tonight.
Though to be fair, there was no blame to be apportioned, because Brentford had been irresistible to watch and almost unplayable for the the last thirty minutes of the half, which had turned into a complete mismatch... and that is why they had built a commanding lead.
The visitors had started off on the front foot, but their early endeavors now seemed akin to having paid the price for antagonizing a Bees nest.
Pun limit overload reached.
Orient huffed and puffed during the second-half, but their efforts were all in vain. Alas, they were further inconvenienced when Jack Simpson was dismissed for a second yellow card offence, in the sixty-ninth minute, after he tangled with Schade and the remainder of the game became a damage limitation exercise for them... well, if it wasn't already.
The Bees saw the game out comfortably and will subsequently entertain Championship side Sheffield Wednesday in the next round.
A fair result all told and it was very polite of Brentford not to completely turn the screw after the break and inflict a top-heavy and humiliating result upon a fellow likable London team.
FT: Brentford 3 v Leyton Orient 1
Sadly, tonight's programme was one of those pointless fold-out A5 poster efforts, with virtually zero content to read. I'm glad to report, this isn't the Bees usual publication format.
A fool and his money are soon parted and I must confess that I'm daft as a brush as regards purchasing crap in my pursuit of following various levels of the beautiful game.
Thus ends my first ever (and possibly even last) visit to the (Gtech) Community Stadium.
It's neat, tidy, comfortable, functional and accessible enough, the views of the pitch are good and the toilets are very posh. Overall the experience was agreeable and left a good impression on me. However, traditionalist that I am, I'd have to say that I preferred visiting Griffin Park.
Each to their own, innit!?
