I haven't been posting due to no other reason than Brentford's recent results have spoken for themselves - dire. For a brief period we couldn't buy a goal and that coincided with two of our key players - Matt Heywood and Kevin O'Connor - both being injured and unable to play. The spine of the team disintegrated and while we have had a fabulous loanee called Alan Bennett to block the Heywood-shaped hole in the back four, we seemed to have lost rythm, confidence and fight as well as our captain and a midfielder.However, we've pulled ourselves together, got up from the canvas and are now beginning to punch our weight again. Kevin O'Connor is back in midfield and made a classy return against Grimsby on Easter Monday and Heywood has recovered from his injury and is now on the subs bench.We played against Wrexham on Easter Saturday and to be frank the game was poor and so were both teams. But we took 3 points and any football fan - and particularly Brentford ones - will tell you that sometimes you have to win ugly.So, what does this mean? Anything, apart from the fact that I have cheered up? Well, yes, actually. Brentford rose two more places in the League 2 table yesterday putting us 10th. Big deal, you are probably saying. Tenth, schmenth, it's not promotion, is it? Not outright promotion, no. But we are now back to within touching distance of the play-offs. We don't have a strong chance - we blew too many points a couple of weeks ago when we had 3 games in 8 days and travelling of 1300 miles in a week - but we do have a chance. We need to catch Chesterfield who are the bottom team in the play off zone on 60 points. We have 55 points. Both teams have played the same number of games. Rochdale, our opponents this coming Saturday, are two teams above us and just below Chesterfield and are on 59 points. If Rochdale beat us and Chesterfield lose, they change places and Rochdale go into the play off zone. If we beat Rochdale and Grimsby, the team directly above us, lose we go directly below Rochdale with one point less than them and with a much stronger shout of getting into the play offs.If you only go to one game this season, make it this one. I cannot guarantee you blood and thunder because often teams seize up when there is so much at stake but we, the fans, on the terraces can express all the emotion we want and play our part in lifting our players.See you there.
Allison Franklin ● 6764d