February Round Up with Brentford FC

---

Scunthorpe United 0 - 0 Brentford

Brentford drew 0-0 at Scunthorpe yesterday in a fairly dour League One scrap.

Scunthorpe had the best chance to score when Jon Parkin - whose battle with Leon Legge was the game's main focal point - headed against the bar.

The Bees best attack led to Saido Berahino forcing home keeper Slocombe into a smart save. Saido had a quieter game than his two goal debut but still looks a goal threat.

Adam Forshaw came on as a substitute for his Bees debut and looked lively and full of running whilst Marcus Bean was carried off in the last few minutes. - replaced by Pim Balkestein who even mustered a shot on goal.

Not a classic in any way with neither team doing enough to deserve three points.

Bees - Moore, Thompson, Legge, Dean, Bidwell, Bean (Pim), Dave, Douglas, Saunders (Forshaw), Donaldson (Alexander), Berahino

Unused Bees - Lee, McGinn

Brentford 4 - 0 Carlisle United (Feb 20)

Brentford won 4-0 in front of the Sky cameras on a brisk Monday night at Griffin Park.

Carlisle looked lively early on with Zoko a threat but conceded a cheap goal when keeper Collin wedged himself in no man's land and Harlee Dean headed home with aplomb.

Sam Saunders made it 2-0 from an angle, his shot squeezing under Collin's body, before a lovely move saw sub Saido Berahino finish with a delightful snap shot before half time.

Richard Lee was replaced by Simon Moore during the break and the young keeper made a smart early save.

Berahino then added a fantastic fourth goal with a curling beauty early in the second half.

The Bees were largely untroubled as Carlisle made several slapstick errors and thr home team could arguably have added to their goal tally with some more decisive finishing.

All in all a very enjoyable evening.

Bees - Lee (Moore), Logan (Thompson), Dean, Legge, Saunders, Bean, Dave, Douglas, Donaldson, Alexander (Berahino)

Colchester United 2 - 1 Brentford (Feb 14)

Defeat at Colchester on Tuesday night nipped Brentford's one match winning streak in the bud... and pushed the chances of gatecrashing the playoffs even further away.

The Bees are now 8 points below 6th place Stevenage who have a game in hand, and there is traffic in the form of Notts County, Carlisle and Bournemouth between the two teams.

Colchester have now taken four points from us this season - all through late goals - despite looking pretty awful in both games.

The Bees started the brighter side last night with Niall McGinn rattling a post with a curler in the tenth minute. This was, however, the highlight of the first half.

After the break we took the lead when Jake Bidwell was felled in the box for a softish looking penalty. Gary Alexander's spotkick was saved but McGinn scored from the rebound.

Brentford - despite Uwe's claims to the opposite - failed to dominate midfield last night with a farily direct Colchester side providing plenty of midfield running to support their attack.

Substitute Steven Gillespie scored both goals for the home side -firstly prodding the ball into an empty net after Richard Lee's crossbar had been rattled and then scoring from distance with a shot which seemed to go straight through the Brentford stopper.

Martin Rowlands had joined the game at 1-0 to Brentford and to be fair the quality of his free kicks helped Colchester gain some momentum. He got a well deserved chorus of boos from the travelling support, plus several songs of 'You know what you are....'. The judas one was also booked for a foul on Sam Saunders.

Saido Berahino made a late debut for Brentford but rarely saw the ball.

All in all it was a pretty poor showing from both teams - with Brentford failing to warm their supporter's hearts on Valentines Night.

You are also left to question why Rosler - despite the snow abandonments - changed the team that had seen off Wycombe with aplomb last time out.

Bees - Lee, Logan, Dean, Legge, Bidwell, McGinn (Donaldson), Bean (Berahino), Dave, Douglas, Weston (Saunders), Alexander.

Unused Bees - Moore, Pim

With thanks to beesotted for their match reports

 

March 1, 2012