1. The home fans produced an incredibly nervy and hushed atmophere and were comfortably outsung by the Brentford away support. In short, it was like being at the Valley.
2. Leeds aren't particularly good. They had a 20 minute spell in the first half where they should have scored, but beyond that the team looked as nervy as their support. Some nice pitter patter passing from side to side in the midfield, but generally fairly woeful in the final third. This also considering the fact that Grayson said post match that it was their best performance for weeks.
3. I'm not sure if Beckford is a good striker for scoring, or a terrible one for missing some of the first half chances that he did. Didn't look interested at all and the free header he casually ballooned miles over the bar was pretty shocking.
4. A few comments from Leeds fans in the pub after the game:
"Grayson Out. The guy's clueless. A group of players this talented should be walking this division; most of them could be playing championship football etc. etc." - Sound familiar?
"We're too reliant on one goalscorer. The likes of Charlton or Norwich get goals from all over" - Thought this was very interesting in comparison to our fans lamenting we don't have a true goalscorer. Seems we should actually celebrate that we're multi-faceted! ;-)
Basically, it was all very encouraging and I have a renewed faith that we could just snatch second place. Not because we're looking a good side (by the sounds of it, we're not) but because Leeds aren't looking a good side either, and second place has to go to someone.
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Must have been around 2,500. Absolutely fantastic atmosphere in the away end, and even I got carried away when Brentford scored the first goal.
I think it was the sort of big away trip that all their fans were up for as it's not every day you play at Elland Road. I went with some mates who support Brentford that came all the way up from Portsmouth uni to watch the game.
Like us it seems they still have fans that are convinced that they have a team of Championship players. I really don't believe we have many good Championship players, and I doubt Leeds do either. Probably plenty of players from both clubs that aren't too far off, just lack in a few too many areas. They can compete in the Championship, but no one is going to win promotion to the Prem with say, as an example, Sam, Racon or Richardson starting every game for them.
Grayson surely much like Parky, a decent League One manager, not great, but like players he has his weaknesses that mean he's not a really good manager.
As for the striker thing, Akpo has three in three now. A couple more goals and we can start moaning our midfield don't score enough ;-)
A much needed sense of perspective.
One that gives us hope too, so all to play for in the dreaded last 10.
Thank goodness Curbs isnt our manager - his (and Pards) last 10 were consistently poor.
Mind you that was usually because the team had played above expectations all season to get us to safety!
;-)
Only Norwich seem to be playing with any confidence. Can't believe the pressure won't get to them at some point. I know we say it every week but next week at Millwall will be a big big test of our character. If we can get through that with a positive result I'll start to believe again but until then.....
As suggsted IMO we would struggle in the Championship with this squad. Let's worry about that then.
Must admit, this is my worry as well. Whilst we've won 3 in 4, we haven't had a convincing win against a good side for ages. And looking at our fixture list, we're going to need a few of those if we want that automatic spot.
Still, whilst people say things like 'we'll need to win 7/8 out of the last 11 to go up automatically', that would only be if another club goes on an equally good run. And right now, where is that club?
i thought they might have had freebie travel up there for the numbers that were up there
EDIT: Don't worry, done
The parallels with us are obvious. Hopefully we can capitalise on their wobbliness and sneak into 2nd place....the pressure on our team to succeed is large, but arguably, the pressure on Leeds to succeed is even greater, especially due to their seeming invincibility during the first half of the season.
The fans are definitely panicking as a sense of deja vu sets in. I think a 3rd straight season missing out on promotion would be more than they could bear
Regarding Leeds, their next 5 games are:
Tranmere A (game in hand tomorrow night)
Southampton A
Millwall H
Norwich A
Swindon H
I think a win is vital for them tomorrow or they could find themselves sucked into the play offs over the next few weeks.
Brentford have played Leeds for the past 2 previous seasons, so not a new ground for them.
But probably a stonking day out in front of a huge crowd, so big sense of occasion.
Brentford won League 2 last season, Oggy. Leeds may not have been in League 1 the last time Brentford were there.
The man carrying last seasons league tables handwritten on parchment on a cleft stick hasn't reached him yet.
Poor Oggy
To clarify, I believe Leeds were relegated to League 1 the year Brentford were relegated to League 2 (2007), so they just missed each other
well i've used the live on sky excuse for the reason the massive bristol rovers brought over 300 more fans to us than we did them........not forgetting it was a monday night ;-)
btw i thought 1,333 was a good turnout for what wouldn't be a new ground for a small club like brentford despite it being shown live!