view from Brentford post game

[terryr]

Does losing to the river rats make it feel worse?

" I'm still hurting so much and I think losing to our rivals makes it twice as painful as if it were to a random team like Stoke. All those times we've done them time and time again in regular season games over the last 5 years, then they do us when it really matters."

" Feel like all those previously great memories like Jota in the last minute, 1-4, the Maupay equaliser, the double this season...have all been deleted by what happened in this match now."

" Not especially. We had a fantastic season, with loads of good memories, not just those against Putney and all of it feels a bit pointless now."

" Of course it's all in our heads so shouldn't matter that much(!) but they will always have that big moment over us, to sing about for evermore.
Whereas we're singing about a winner in a mid season league game nearly 5 years ago :-("

" No. We've had a more than decent record in the recent past against them. We have been their bogey team for quite a while now. They simply sussed us out on Tuesday, and wereplaced probably overdue a win against us. The fact it was a set piece and not open play that they scored first from did make it more disappointing for us, though."

" No not for me. It would have been equally as painful if it had been anyone else, it was therefore for the taking irrespective of who we played.
Oh well as NLB says time to move on.."

" I thought it would matter but as soon as it kicked off i lost sight of who we were playing and i became fixated only on us and our performance, just willing us to do ourselves justice, unfortunately we didnt. Even if we would have won i wouldnt of cared that we had beaten fulham, all that mattered was getting promoted"

" Had we been there it definitely would but I find it difficult to get worked up about a rivalry when a game's in an empty stadium and their fans are nowhere near as annoying on social media as the likes of Leeds."

" It's a massive blow but we are BRENTFORD SUPPORTERS well used to this , just get over and move on."

" It would have been worse if it was the mob from W12!"

" I think it would probably feel almost as bad if it was any other team. It makes it a little worse - it probably would have had more of an impact if we were there."

" At least i wasnt conned again losing to them is a killer im still mad the team let me down again big time we were a joke.."

"No. It wouldn't matter who we lost to. What hurt the most is the combination of 3 opportunities to get promoted and the annoyance that with the spotlight on us, some of us got all Billy Bigbollox about it and we failed."

" Not for me. I enjoy the away games there. I would have hated losing in the play-offs to an anti-football team. To lose to NF or Brum would have felt worse and very frustrating.

" I have handled it by telling all my fulham mates they they did a brilliant research and execution job on us and I didn't think they had it in them to change tactics and stick to it for 120 mins. Deserved to win and and good luck.

It kills them stone dead and they can't gloat or piss take.

I do drop in that I thought there were 2-3 reds in there and we could have done a smash and grab if the ref had balls but I don't linger as it starts to look like sour grapes so I move on.
On our fantasy football WhatsApp banter page someone posted the Brentford badge with Bottleford on it, I replied, "that is about right, however I console myself with the fact fulham spent 100m on players from their parachute payments and we spent about 9m and still finished above them"
Then they all started on about how they admire what we have done etc.
The truth is the only people that really care about it is us and we can get back into it in a few weeks time.
What a season we have coming up, bees up fulham down."

"Not really. However good we can be it's proved again we need to deal with terms who try to stop us playing. I'm sure Mr. Frank & his staff are pleased to have something more to work on."

" Not really. Will enjoy watching them cope next year as they repeat 2018-19."

" It would have annoyed me more to lose to Leeds to be honest."

" It's sh*t but there are various reasons why it's not as sh*t as it would 'normally' be:
- No crowd (feel a bit detached from it all not being there and actually would have felt cheated having not been able to celebrate it if we'd won)
- Doubt over how interesting next season will be (regardless of the league) without crowds
- Doesn't feel like a once in a blue moon opportunity for promotion (we'll knock on the door again soon)
- Having a new stadium to concentrate on (a 100+ year event rather than a one season event)"

" I have taken a family of Fulham fans to Gatwick.
Listening to them talking about Tuesday night hurt.
They now know who I support though and commended us on a well run club whose day will come.
Got a fellow driver who is FFC and I have not seen him yet."

" Disappointed - yes .. upset that it was Fulham .. no not really
Don't think Fulham were that much better than us . 2 teams snuffing each other out.
More pissed off that all the Leeds fans giving it large on social media .. I hate that club so much"

"Much worse for me, the absolute worst (with the exception of it being QPR I suppose).
It's something we'll never be able to erase form our history. Something they will now always have over us that trumps many times over; Bees Up Fulham Down, Jota in the last minute and the various other times we've been able to lord it over them.
We've put them in the Premier League, we've given them those riches.
Exacerbated by the fact we messed up the opportunity to go up automatically too.
Sad times."

" The essence of anything good comes from the soul. They have fans with clappers...enough said!"

"Look what was riding on it. It was definately the biggest game in our history to date and it was against our rivals.
As said above, that result is marked on us forever now.
Im loving what the club are doing these days but **** me, following Brentford can be soul destroying at times.
I didnt want fulham at any point on the play offs.
Going out to someone else would have hurt but not like this.
The lowest ive ever felt after one of our failures"

"It hurts, but Fulham will be rooted to the bottom of The Prem next season."

" Yes it makes it worse. This was the perfect time to go up and it didn't happen. I don't feel anything but gratitude towards the players and staff but it is going to sting for a long time and has tainted all the memories our victories over Fulham.
Anyway Bees Up Fulham Down next year."

"I can take losing to Fulham but yes, I would have been really disappointed to lose to a side like Forest, Cardiff, Millwall etc. I actually found the Stoke and Barnsley performances harder to deal with than the Fulham game. It's an age thing with rivalry. I had been going to Brentford for 15 years before I saw us play Fulham and don't have any particular issues with them. My son is the opposite but he has been watching these derbies since his early days at GP."

"  There isn't one.

The players didn't turn up. None of them.

We deserved nothing and got nothing.

Different team. Same old Brentford.

As they say: It's Brentford innit."

" Worst moment for me was when Bryan was crowing in his post-match about how he and Parker planned to beat Raya that way because they knew he always comes too far forward. Sickening to know we fell down on something like that."

" The better team won, get over it. Our time will come. We'll get promoted when we can be at the games."

"Parker got his team and tactics right. Even down to their first goal. Keeper comes a long way off his line if we get a fk out wide whip it in to the near post. Spot on, good research. Well executed. We seemed to lack energy and kept losing the ball. Jenson was anonymous and Said so well marshalled he rarely offered anything. Anyway there's always next season. Starts tomorrow I think."

"Well, that was a roller coaster season. Some real lows and some great highs. All in all, great entertainment and I still firmly believe that, taking the season as a whole, we've played the most attractive, exciting and attacking football In the Championship.
We didn't turn up tonight and Fulham deserved to win. Héctor is a big, fouling, cheating, ****, but very effective for all that and the best player on the pitch tonight.
Feeling very down now, but we'll be back next season and give it our best again. We may lose some players but I have confidence in the DOF's that any replacements will be more than adequate.
Off now to cry myself to sleep."

" We regroup. Sell off one or two for big bucks who should have performed at the final showdown but didn't Start again. Bit more wise next season.
Aim for automatic promotion.
Leeds and Fulham are bargain basement next season In Premier league
We will get there. We have the club and the passion to do it. Bit more maturity at end of season needed when it counts.
Muzzle for Macondies might help !
Cheers and good night"

" It would appear that EM's pre match interview has come back to haunt us. Both Bryan and Cairney have just referenced it."

" Not quite the usual no show, and penalties looked close to a certainty until that free kick. But we failed to approach the game with sufficient positivity and belief. This has been the case in every final I've seen us in over the past few decades. Just once it would be nice to turn up and play to our potential."

" I said before the game over confident and hated us being every neutral fans favourite and the media"

" After listening to the Fulham interviews on Sky I do hope our players and management desist from stupid comments about the opposition "Fearing us" and other such nonsense in future - clearly such comments do provide motivation and edge as it seemed to do with Leeds."

" hat a heart-breaking and gut-wrenching performance. This squad lacks character, it's not news. But I hope this problem can be solved. With some toughness and ruthlessness we are a ready EPL product. Still, I'm thankful for the team for this season, most of the time it was a joy supporting them. Now, learn the lesson and get ready for the next campaign. My only gripe is that in current times iFollow subscription seems more expensive than ever)"

" Fulham knew we would play exactly the same way as we always do, they stopped our centre backs getting ball to our midfield. They had 3 games to get their tactics right and they did tonight. We don't have the variety in our play to adapt or mix it up...when we have must win games teams know how to nullify us. Not just this season but over the past few years..."

" Also, a ref forum has said that Fulham could have got a couple of reds especially if VAR were involved.
Maybe now the efl will get on that for the play offs."

" Best team won on the day. We weren't at it. Thomas got schooled tactically. Really poo goal to let in though. Experienced players didn't turn up. We'll be back at it next season.."

" Just out of interest, how many Fulham players were booked?"

" 7, and three were straight reds."

"Definitely Reed and Mitrovic. Red cards change games. I wonder if Rico's sending off had the ref thinking twice before making such a big decision? Next season will be our turn for glory "

" why didn't the ref send reed off, we didn't deserve it but it could have won us 180m quid. It was complete suicide by Fulham and I honestly thought all my dreams were coming true."

" They weren't really red cards though. Ref was pretty decent I think."

" Seem to remember a while back the feeling was that most Putney supporters wanted Parker gone.
Wonder if they still feel the same way?"

"Give it a few months."

"  Never thought much of Parker and considered him tactically inept but he did a number on us alright. Not enough options available to us when our main game is countered and this has been our Achilles heel this season."

" Our play off nightmare continues.
On a positive note, my Fulham neighbour reckons they'll
come straight back down next season!!"

" I would like to think the same but many of us were thinking if we went up we would have no difficulty in staying up considering after Norwich, Watford and 'Muff there is not a lot left to fear as the likes of Brighton, Villa, Palace, Newcastle, Everton are all beatable and Fulham could easily be above the bottom three.

" Fulham without Mitrovic were a different team. Made it a tough game compared to the two league fixtures. My main disappointment is Fulham weren't at the races either and there was a chance there that we totally missed. But I feel this will spur us on like it did after Doncaster and Yeovil."

"We were unlucky with at least three key referee decisions in last couple of weeks. Pinnock hauled to the ground in penalty area at Stoke, Henry's dismissal at Swansea and two clear sending offs missed yesterday. Makes all the difference! I accept being beaten by better sides but the refereeing has been very poor."


" Still feeling down, especially as it started from a bloody silly goal that should never have gone in( is that why goalkeeping coach has gone) . Unfair I know but feel those that failed on the day will be leaving to pursue their careers and finances elsewhere , whilst the club will need to regroup. Again too early but I would like some positive news from club re who is going and who is staying, and also how the present crisis is likely to impact on the club short term and long term( MB has not got a bottomless pit of money).
In short I would like to hear from the club where they see us going from here."


" They played bloody well. Parker had them fired up and got his tactics 100% right. Even to researching the 1st goal and having a plan if the situation arose. The reason they had 7 bookings is because they were more up for it on the day and gave 100%. We unfortunately weren't. They weren't and are not kick and rush or long ball. They played through us with excellent technique. Damn them!!!!!"

"Pretty much agree with you. I would say though that Fulham's tactics were a gamble. They created very few clear cut chances and though they were better than us, had we somehow scored first I'm not sure how or if they'd had found a way back. Game was always going to be decided by a moment of brilliance or a mistake - turned out to be a combination of both."

" knows a few people at the club. Apparently the Fulham team and management where not happy about the comments coming from Brentford especially the Mecondas comments .I must say Fulham's conduct leading up to the final was spot on .A lesson to be learnt."

" I'm not sure where I stand on all this. On the one hand I think there's no harm in being positive. I also think that the Danish, much like the Dutch, are quite straight talkers and therefore some of the things that Thomas, Emiliano etc say is sometimes as a result of their straight talking Danish heritage.
On the other hand I hate seeing the glee coming from fans, and even some players, of rival clubs ramming the 'they fear us' sentiment back down our throats which hurts to be honest.
On balance I would rather be quiet, keep our confidence within the camp, and do our talking on the pitch.
I will also say there is an element of no longer being 'good ol Brentford', they're a nice little club. We are now seen as a proper threat and attitudes towards us will inevitably change for the worse, although that I'm quite happy with!!"

THAT'S IT FOR THIS YEAR.
SEE YOU NEXT YEAR.....
IN ABOUT 6 WEEKS!

[Motspur Park]

They have a few knobs but on the whole, they are not a bad bunch. Imagine if it had been Rangers! They have a thread running with 'positive comments only' and as hard as it may be to have that philosophy after losing a play off final, fair play to them.

Nobody can deny that they were excellent this season and if it spurs them on next season, good luck to them. However, the flip side is that 2 or 3 of their star players could well move on and then it is the problem of trying to replace them.

[FFCBadger]

I started reading this like it was an article....wait, the grammar is all over the place! What the hell!?
Then figured it's a message board...  :dft001:

Out of the three this was obviously the one to win, they've taken it well (mostly)

[General]

Only one particular moment stood out out of those comments, that our tactics were a gamble - they weren't. They were masterfully orchestrated and completely nullified them. We played them at their own game and used our substitutes well. Ideally we'd like to have won in the normal 90, but past that Brentford never really got into the game.

Before the game a lot of Brentford fans were approaching the game as if they were guaranteed to win by 2 or 3 goals.. Whilst I appreciate we lost 2-0 in our last game, the first post lockdown - all stats suggested it would be a very close game.

I did think Marcondes's remarks before the game were unbelievable and a complete gift to Fulham in terms of motivation, can't believe he said it to be honest - in competitive sport you'd have to be extremely naive to give that green light to the opposition to turn up and want to prove a point, let alone in such a big game. He must have been extremely overconfident to say that. And he didn't even come on until the 60th minute. Talk about putting your teammates in the mire.

[Rupert]

Yes, I have to say that Brentford fans have, by and large, taken this with a lot of dignity. There are a couple of their older fans who I have known at various stages in my life who have possibly just seen their only genuine chance at seeing top flight football disappear, and I do feel sorry for them.
It is not that long ago that many of us could only dream of ever seeing the Mighty Whites in the Premiership, which is why I do not go along with this "Back where we belong" nonsense. We do not belong anywhere, other than wher we have earned the right to be, whether that be top flight or 91st in the league, losing 2-1 home and away to the team in 92nd place.
If Brentford do win promotion next season, and even if they replace us if it all goes horribly wrong for us again, I won't begrudge them their success.

[Southcoastffc]

They have a few knobs but on the whole, they are not a bad bunch. Imagine if it had been Rangers! They have a thread running with 'positive comments only' and as hard as it may be to have that philosophy after losing a play off final, fair play to them.

Nobody can deny that they were excellent this season and if it spurs them on next season, good luck to them. However, the flip side is that 2 or 3 of their star players could well move on and then it is the problem of trying to replace them.

Isn't that true of any football club, anywhere?  Most people are at least nearly human.

[ALG01]

I love the comment re clackers..... as if that is a big deal becaue in truth we now have clackers in the premiership

by and large they were interesting comments and the ones I had most sympathy for were the ones that said they had their chance to go up automatically and failed... in the end that was what did for their chances and in the end, they lost 4 out of their last five games, plus a couple of poor performances before that.
Losing four out of five speaks volumes. When the pressure was on, they lost their nerve I presume.

regaridng the poitential red cards. I think reed has been overstated and I think their player was late and got hurt as a result of his poor play. I do not see why reed should be penalised for that. If TC would have made contact, that would surely have been striaght red but as it was it was musical hall ridiculous. and mitro? well I think the ref gave him the benifit of the doubt because I suspect he felt there was more going on, but mitro was mighty lucky.

[Burt]

A fair range of comments, to be fair. I would probably have been more gutted had we lost, albeit not overly surprised given I was expecting them to do another one on us!

[rebel]

I started reading it, then thought 'War and Peace' might take a lot longer, but be more interesting. :003:

[fulhamben]

"They will always have that big moment to sing about ever more".  I honestly can't remember us singing about brentford in the last 30 years.

[OldBrownShoe]

Such unnecessary bitterness. I know you haven't been in the top division since 1947.
As a West Londoner, I regularly watched Fulham, fifteen minutes from where I lived, and Chelscum, and QPhaha
I can remember seeing your team when you had Jim Towers, George Francis, Alan Hawley, Ian Dargie, Ken Coote, Gerry Cakebread etc. Glad you have what looks like a lovely ground and your team could easily get promoted next season and hope they do and The Bees do play good football. And we get abuse from your "supporters" on here, kids I suppose?
But the Premiership really is not easy and much of the refereeing is terrible. It will be an experience if and when you get there. Tbh much preferred the Championship and old Division 2.
Good luck.

[Fulham Joe]

I wanted them to go up on the last day, but they blew it.
I like to see supporters of smaller teams share in some of the big moments, we can all be pot hunters, Fulham and Brentford fans clearly aren't.

[Dodger53]

Funny that they enjoy calling us Putney -

[filham]

Remember it must be really tough on them, for most of those fans it was a once in a lifetime opportunity and they were the favourites.

[Motspur Park]

They have a few knobs but on the whole, they are not a bad bunch. Imagine if it had been Rangers! They have a thread running with 'positive comments only' and as hard as it may be to have that philosophy after losing a play off final, fair play to them.

Nobody can deny that they were excellent this season and if it spurs them on next season, good luck to them. However, the flip side is that 2 or 3 of their star players could well move on and then it is the problem of trying to replace them.

Isn't that true of any football club, anywhere?  Most people are at least nearly human.

Very true but some clubs have many more knobs than others. We have our share but Rangers, Cardiff, Leeds and a number of others clubs have masses of them. Their boards are toxic.

[RoyTund]

The Leeds fans have been more than irritating allover their social media mocking them. Generally they have taken it well and philosophically, looking at how far they have come.

One comment. Why on earth do they they think calling us Putney is either clever or would remotely bother us? It's not like Putney is a bad area or our rivals name. Bizarre imo.

[Carborundum]

Funny that they enjoy calling us Putney -

Half a mile down the river and on the wrong bank.  A curious choice of stone to throw given the new location right next to the Chiswick roundabout. 

[fulhamben]

Funny that they enjoy calling us Putney -

Half a mile down the river and on the wrong bank.  A curious choice of stone to throw given the new location right next to the Chiswick roundabout. 

industrial estate would be more apt as a name for them. He must have made a fortune on that move

[Kentish Gent]

I started reading this like it was an article....wait, the grammar is all over the place! What the hell!?
Then figured it's a message board...  :dft001:

Out of the three this was obviously the one to win, they've taken it well (mostly)

[hovewhite]

Never given brentford a lot of thought really!