End of season game with nothing major riding on it in glorious weather, a few beers all round, and hopefully a decent game. There are still league positions and their millions up for grabs mind, so not to be taken too lightly. We'll see whether any flip-flops come out! We kinda bookend each other's season, the reverse fixture up there early in the season could have gone either way. Ended in them snatching a late draw but only after they hit the woodwork about 5 times! Solanke v Toney might be one media angle on the game, but both teams have other danger men. So glad to see Semenyo fit after his recent knee scare, he's such a menace. Mbeumo will need watching. The club have got various end of season activities, offers and awards going on. Even the local pub is having an end of season party. Hopefully the game doesn't put a dampener on what should be a good day!
Another draw nailed on. Loved the reverse fixture, discovering the Black Dog brewery pub in the sun too. Up there with the Rutland Arms in Sheffield as best away pub visited. Like with Palace, we have been lucky with other clubs having absentees and injuries for major parts of the season. May not have been as high as we are otherwise.
Biggest game of the weekend. Should be a nice jaunt in the sun, can see it being a fairly tight affair and one that fizzles out - our intense game surely won't last the distance considering the forecast...
Not the best game of football. Brentford look very good in patches and we counter well. Unlucky not to be ahead with a couple disallowed (one VAR and one real time) but I struggled to celebrate either if I’m honest. Not sure how it’s 0-0 but the tone has been set gutter level by Mbeumo. Misjudging the turn of a defender and going down clutching his face in visible fresh air, ref sees through it initially and allows us one attack, but pulls up for the “head injury” after a few moments. Brentford don’t give the ball back and setup an attack of their own. The whole place was incensed and it’s set the tone for a niggly game since. It’s going to be a battle, but somewhere in here are two decent footballing sides and a decent game, if we can let them play.
Brentford penalty overruled by VAR /ref going to the screen . As usual mixed opinions although tbf some Brentford fans think Toney went down easily .
Annoying. Fans not happy with refs performance. looks like we need to be more streetwise against the likes of Brentford. Talented team and really hard to play against. Just know how to stay in games. We’ll be overtaken by Palace now next week after our inevitable defeat to Chelsea.
A bitter pill to swallow after a fantastic season. We probably overcommitted to win the game and Brentford unlocked us with a nice counter, and walk away with the points. You respect that with an aggressive manager and take the rough with the smooth I guess. It’s frustrating that they’re such a bunch of cynical t**ts, they win that award for the season. The debutant referee at this level was basically guessing everything and his assistants weren’t much help to him tbh. Will need to see the first half “goals” again as I was the wrong end to judge. The penalty given but ungiven (for Toney?) had me worried, but again up the wrong end to judge with authority. If it was a dive it’d fit right in! But unsure. 11 mins of added time played, plus Toney putting more effort into gesturing to and winding the crowd up than marking his man at the last corner says a lot about the game! But we never quite got the sharpness going around their box that I’d normally expect. Disallowed goals notwithstanding, I’d normally expect us to create a touch more than that. So credit the Brentford defence I guess, even if I’m slightly bitter that half their defensive work was falling over and buying free kicks Think a draw in a better quality game would have been fair and deserved, but there we are.
After that today? For sure! I think anyone would be. I’m just thankful it wasn’t meaningful in the grand scheme.
Frank is just an obnoxious weirdo and that does trickle through to his team inevitably. Toney is a brilliant player but clearly lacking intelligence as his actions have consistently displayed - he reminds me of Zaha in that sense. You wonder how good he would be if he wasn't so bothered about all the drama. Shame to lose but Brentford have a decent team. Hope we can finish 11th at least still, 10th would be nice. As for the refereeing, the entire body is just not fit for purpose. The last fast tracked ref we had in her debut game hasn't been seen in the Prem since.
I see Bournemouth employing the Mourinho tactic of early fouls (on or before the halfway line) to kill any attack against them. They have very dirty players like Cook who definitely target individual players. I was very unimpressed. Haven't you had 500+ fouls in a PL season. The most since Watford in 16/17(?)
I don't know the specific answer to your question, but I would expect our style of play to bring about a high number of fouls. Because we go around targeting and hassling defenders aggressively, that what the high press does. As you'll see from (having re-watched it now, perfectly legitimate) the second disallowed goal where Collins realises he's bang in trouble, defenders get a bit more protection in duels for some reason. We benefit from this at times of course when play is the other way around, but it's a facet of the game that does disproportionately hurt Iraola's style. Brentford played up to this even more successfully than most, some it pretty theatrical, which was the point. It's a shame the game got bogged down in so much crap and the ref constantly involved, because both sides showed enough quality and ability at different points to make a far better spectacle. For the first 10-12 mins we literally couldn't get the ball off Brentford, we may as well have been playing Man City. Ok you couldn't sustain that, and it wasn't long after that everything started going to shit, but the potential for a good game was there. Smith or Senesi being called dirty I could understand, but Cook seems an odd pick. You'll have a point about fouling around halfway in general though, it's very common these days and it is cynical in it's own way.
Had to laugh when re-watching highlights, seeing Mbeumo tapping his watch in celebration after he scored Keeping the meme alive!
In my opinion Solanke was very un-lucky not to keep his second goal , Collins got very lucky with the refs decision , also think Bournemouth got lucky with the Toney penalty, the defender grabbed Toney's shirt for a couple of seconds, in fact was still holding it when Toney was on the floor, ive seen Antony Gordon get penalty's for a bloody lot less. over all a successful season for both clubs ( as in not relegated ) both clubs looking to another year in the richest league in the world
I immediately thought of the penalty that Toney bought last season tussling with Senesi when he got his penalty on Saturday overturned Agreed Solanke was unlucky with the disallowed goal, I think most Bees fans would be gutted to have that one chalked off if the shoe was on the other foot. Agreed, best of luck next season, hopefully I'm free for the away match, first visit to the Black Dog brewery pub in September - top pub. Not quite the New Inn, but good
