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21 Apr 2016

Charlton Athletic Need Our Support

As Brentford fans we recall the days of Noades and Webb , with anguish. If anyone is free and not travelling to MK Dons on saturday, they might consider supporting Charlton here. The Brighton fans already are doing so and I wish them well. For Tarkowski and Transfer related reasons most Brentford fans would welcome Brighton gaining promotion at the expense of Burnley.

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Following the team’s relegation to League One on Tuesday night, the Coalition Against Roland Duchatelet (CARD) is calling on all Charlton fans who want the owner to sell the club to march on The Valley from Charlton Church Lane at 2.15pm on Saturday.

CARD is planning another massive pre-match protest, along similar lines to the funeral procession before the Middlesbrough game last month, which will assemble outside the Charlton Liberal Club, opposite the junction with Sundorne Road, from 2pm.

And we need the help of volunteers to make it happen. If you want to help, and can get to the ground for 1pm, please email Charlton.card@yahoo.co.uk. There’s plenty going on!

This time we will also be joined by supporters of opponents Brighton & Hove Albion*, who are turning out to back CARD in acknowledgement of the contribution Addicks supporters made to their Fans United day at the Goldstone Ground 19 years ago.

But we need a huge turnout to show the extent of anger and the determination among Charlton supporters of all ages to drive Duchatelet, chief executive Katrien Meire and their apologists out of the club – and we’ll be bringing some protest materials along to ensure that it is an appropriate spectacle for the media.

With the team’s fate confirmed, we’re chucking the kitchen sink at the regime this weekend. The march is just the start. CARD is organising further protests during the match, and is also calling for fans to reassemble in the west stand car park at the final whistle – and to make the whole afternoon as uncomfortable as possible for Meire and chairman Richard Murray.

Since Duchatelet hasn’t attended a match since October 21st, 2014, there seems little chance him being there on Saturday. But you never know…

Further details of our plans for Saturday will follow at the end of the week and on the matchday itself, but CARD is planning its biggest show of strength yet and we need every Charlton fan who shares our view to stand alongside us.

We continue to liaise with the Metropolitan Police to ensure the safety of all supporters, and we urge fans to avoid actions that will bring them into conflict with the police, including any xenophobic, racist or sexist chanting or slogans, as well as flares.

(*In February 1997, a significant number of Charlton fans travelled to Sussex to help support Brighton fans in their hour of need. The Fans United protest that day saw supporters travel to the match versus Hartlepool United from all over the country, but few if any of the non-participating clubs were as well represented as the Addicks. The Seagulls were about to lose the Goldstone Ground and no set of fans knew more about being homeless than ours. Since then there has been a special bond between the two groups of fans – and not just because of our mutual disdain for Crystal Palace. On Saturday, we will be Fans United once again.)

Posted in Uncategorized and tagged alan judge, CARD, charlton athletic, charlton liberal club, charlton protest, charlton v brighton, Coalition Against Roland Duchatelet, david webb, fans united, goldstone ground, james tarkowski, Katrien Meire, RICHARD MURRAY, roland duchatelet, ron noades, sundorne road

17 Jan 2016

Non-League Football At Carshalton AFC Restoring Some Sanity After Crazy Week For Brentford

Some weeks in football terms are best forgotten. Simply a bad week in the life of Brentford football club. A free saturday afternoon meant that I could go in search of a non league football game that might restore my sanity and belief in football as a game.

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My first choice for a game is nearly always Carshalton Athletic who play in the Ryman South league and are assembling a young and enthusiastic side who are not paid the kind of excessive wages that some non league sides have resorted to in an attempt to buy success. Their season is a good one so far and they sit on the edges of the play off positions.

The ground is on the outskirts of Carshalton with a decent amount of parking at the ground. The terracing would grace many lower league grounds and a crowd of 257 gave a decent atmosphere.

The first thing one notices is that it is easy to walk around the whole ground so you not trapped in one zone all game. The food is generally better quality than league grounds and generally cheaper. One also has to mention the 3G pitch of which I am a fan and the ability of games to go ahead in often highly inclement weather.

The football played could be described as robust, a few tackles flying in which on a different day might have led to a few yellow and red cards. But the game and the result mattered to the 22 players out there. The physique and fitness may not be a league standard but these guys ran, well mostly, for 90 minutes.

Local builders did not seem to be doing much building during the game from their high perch behind the goal.

Away support at this level is varied but I had an excellent conversation with the seemingly sole South Park fan standing behind the goal.

People come for different reasons and many nowadays bring cameras, including myself, and some excellent photos end up online post match.

This football is real, played by amateurs and watched by genuine football fans who in many cases have followed their clubs for years or even decades. Those fans who only watch league football at higher echelons could do worse than spend around 10£ or sometimes less to occasionally watch non league football. It does restore your belief that football is a game, that fans of all teams can stand together and chat, and that the complaints over the referee and officials do not stop at a league level!

As a photographer I also enjoy the ability to bring my camera in and get all kinds of photos from different angles that would never be possible at a league game.

Posted in Uncategorized and tagged alan judge, art, bad manners, brentford, brentford fc, Brentford Football Club, brentford new ground, brentford new stadium, brentford promotion, buster bloodvessel, carshalton, carshalton 1 south park 1, Carshalton AFC, Carshalton Athletic, carshalton fc, carshalton football club, cost football ryman league, football, football photos, james tarkowski, london, luke colquhoun, photos carshalton, photos nonleague football, ryman, ryman league, ryman league crowds, ryman league price, ryman league proces, ryman play offs, ryman playoffs 2016, ryman premier, ryman premier league, ryman south, south park, south park football club, tommy bradford | Leave a comment

16 Jan 2016

3 Comments

Dear James Tarkowski. An open letter.

Sadly last night you were not “dear” to the 10,000 fans who having worked to earn the money to watch a football game that you were supposed to be playing in. You clearly felt it right to “go on strike” or refuse to play in the game. Why would that be? It seems that you are not brave nor maybe stupid enough to reply on twitter to the stream of invective and vitriol that I have been reading all evening from Brentford fans. So I have to surmise what the issue might be.

No Camera even this large would have found James Tarkowski at Brentford.

Brentford played Burnley and we assume you and your agent have had contact with Burnley who have made an inadequate offer for you. Brentford who have trained you and improved you over the last two years quite reasonably need payback for that. After all who else will pay the coaching and fitness staff whose services you have used freely to improve. And while on the topic of pay, maybe I should remind you of the games you have missed through red cards and suspensions, and of course those when you were injured. The club supported you through all this. You indeed have been a good player. Not a world beater. You will never for example be an international player like some of your team colleagues. I assume also that you have an issue with Brentford rejecting the bid as it would lead no doubt to higher wages. Brentford have stated, or the media has at least, that a bid of 4-5 million £ would buy your services. Presumably Burnley will pay that if they agree with the valuation. So, back to the game tonight versus Burnley. Why would you say you were not wanting to play? I can again only guess that you did not feel comfortable opposing the team you hope or imagine or know will sign you. Or worse, did not want to be part of a team that would beat Burnley? This is not how football or life works. You are under contract, legally to Brentford and presumably have been paid in accord with that contract? So you might not want to play, but in short you have to. You owed that to the fans and the club. But you declined this kind offer of team selection. So in short your loyalty is with the potential new club Burnley, who may not be blameless in all this by unsettling you and offering ridiculous low transfer bids, but your real loyalty is to yourself and your selfish desire to secure more money, without a thought for the fans, coaches and others who got you as far as this. In short you have let down everyone who has helped and supported you in your career.

A quick look at twitter reveals extensive vitriol towards you not only from fans but from those who know football from your side, players like Marcus Gayle, and journalists. You really have chosen to upset a lot of people. Football supporters who even have no connections with Brentford.

So if You were watching the game on TV tonight you would have seen a Brentford team clearly unsettled by your selfish, arrogant and stupid behaviour lose an important game. You would also have heard 10,000 Bees fans chanting and singing your name, followed by expletives. You will go down in football history as one of the bad guys, who decided that they were more important than the game, the fans, the clubs and the very fabric of football. You will certainly be remembered in years to come but not for your football prowess. Any club who signs you in years to come will take all this into account as will your fellow footballers. How do you feel about letting down not only the club and fans, but also your fellow professionals. I think it is fair to say you have shown all of them a total lack of respect. I do look forward to hearing your side of the story.

Posted in brentford, football, Uncategorized and tagged @Tarky19, alan judge, brentford, brentford defender, brentford fc, Brentford Football Club, brentford v burnley, burnley bad behaviour, championship, football, footballers on strike, footballers wages, griffin park, harlee dean, james tarkowski, james tarkowski goes on strike, jim levack, john swift, league 1, lionel road, london, loyalty, loyalty to club, marcus gayle, mark devlin, money football, new malden, player wages, ryan woods, sean dyche, surrey, tarkowski, tarkowski strike, tarkowski twitter, turf moor, twitter, twitter tarkowski

13 Jan 2016

Brentford 0 Middlesbrough 1. An unlucky evening for Bees

On the face of it Brentford a mid-table side were beaten by the league leaders and in my opinion, Champions elect. There however was a lot more to this game that on balance should be very encouraging for Brentford.

The most important thing is that this group of players are playing hard for their manager and to their potential. The second most important thing is that the fans back the team even in unfortunate defeats such as this. So what was the story of the game? We learned that David Button is an excellent goalkeeper but made one error that cost us the goal and the points. But long before Brentford should have been 2-0 up at least with chances missed and decent saves by the Middlesbrough keeper. Despite all the transfer speculation, and that is all that it is, Diadouraga and Tarkowski started and played decent games. The man of the match who improves with each performance is Maxime Colin, and for once our defence looked more solid than of late. Sam Saunders got a rare start in midfield and did not disappoint . What was apparent though was that Bees have no strikers. Lasse Vibe tries hard but he is not a lone striker and realistically would slot in to midfield in place of Saunders. Hoffman when he came on was invisible. A pair of strikers would make the world of difference to this side. The other fact that cannot be hidden is that Brentford must be the smallest side in the Championship and maybe the league. A midfield of Judge, Saunders, Woods is not a physically threatening vision. Does this matter? Maybe and maybe not.

I am encouraged by the excellent performance tonight but still wondrous at why we have not signed not it seems threatened to sign some strikers. To raid the lower leagues possibly.

But even though the rain came down again and this was the second 1-0 home defeat in 4 days there is plenty of reason for optimism.

Posted in brentford, championship, championship goalkeepers, Uncategorized and tagged brentford, brentford 0 middlesbrough 1, brentford fc, Brentford Football Club, brentford new ground, brentford new stadium, brentford promotion, button own goal, david button, diadouraga, football, griffin park, hoffman, hoffmann, james tarkowski, lasse vibe, london, london football, london football clubs, maxime colin, sam saunders, tarkowski, tarkowski transfer rumours, vibe, west london | Leave a comment

04 Jan 2016

1 Comment

Lets Remind Ourselves of the highlights of Burnley before Tarkowski and Judge decide.

Some of the Brentford fans had the pleasure of a day out at Turf Moor earlier this season. The stewards and fans were friendly enough and maybe we were unfortunate to lose 1-0 to a sloppy goal from defensive error. But would I want to live there?

Judging by the news Burnley are after signing the whole Brentford squad, the fans, the badge and most likely the urban architecture that is Brentford! Today allegedly having a 2.3 million offer rejected for James Tarkowski. A ridiculous bid.

Lets take a look at what Burnley the town and the football ground was like and maybe Tarkowski and Judge may form a different view of where they want to play their football.

A Night out in Burnley. If these were the new ideas from the new owners, what exactly were the old ones like?

A night out in Burnley

2. Maybe not much different to many Northern towns but this is what the streets looked like around the ground

Burnley Streets

3. Uninspiring architecture here at the away fans entrance

Away Fans entrance

4.The ground itself

Lovely Wooden Seats

Posted in brentford, championship, football, Uncategorized and tagged alan judge, away fans burnley, away fans wooden seats, away stand burnley, burnley, burnley 1 brentford 0, burnley fc, burnley streets, burnley v brentford, championship, david fishwick stand, dean smith, dean smith brentford, football, gogia, griffin park, james tarkowski, lancashire, lancashire football, lancashire town, latics, lee carsley, life in lancashire, london, mark devlin, maxime colin, new owners, night out burnley, northern towns uk, oldham athletic, photo burnley, photo burnley fc, photo turf moor, photos burnley, pubs in burnley, streets burnley, The Bees, turf moor, uk north, what burnley like, wooden seats, wooden seats football ground

02 Jan 2016

What have Weekend Offenders and Foot Long Hot Dogs got to do with Birmingham 2 Brentford 1 . Jan 2nd 2016

Sadly an awful football game. The first half was maybe the worst football, if one can describe it as that, all season. Neither team able to pass to another player and nothing to note other than an awful looking tackle in the 45th minute by ex-bee John Toral on Jake Bidwell. Half time arrived with the Brentford crowd baying for a red card and possible execution.

The second half was better though not by much. Brentford leaked their usual two goals with the second resulting from another error from Harlee Dean. Brentford in between scored a goal, a tap in after a goalkeeping error. Frankly this was the sort of game that neither side deserved any points. The referee was also abysmal, Graham Scott. He was finicky to the extreme. Booking an excessive number of players and stoping the game on any any pretext at any time. He ran Keith Stroud a close second in the worst referee of the week awards.

A strange Brentford team performance after recent very strong ones. Raised questions about possible tiredness? Issues behind the scenes relating to transfers?

The team was also a little unusual in that Jota was neither in the side nor on the bench, for which there may be multiple reasons but is he being transferred was the one being discussed? Alan Judge had his quietest game for months. Maybe tired, maybe took a few heavy tackles , maybe again is a transfer allegedly to Middlesbrough for 12 million on his mind? James Tarkowski had his worst game I have seen him have, but still looked good! Again, transfer issues? Tiredness? Who knows.

On the positive side Gogia looked interested when he came on with 20 minutes to go. Neither Hoffmann nor Vibe are strikers we want playing upfront alone.

So, a strange game. St Andrews is a decent ground but we always seem to lose there every time i go……so maybe all my fault.

Weekend offenders was a great piece of graffiti on a wall and foot long hot dogs smelled great. They were maybe the highlights today.

Posted in best football photos, brentford, championship, championship goalkeepers, football, Uncategorized and tagged alan judge, andy gogia, birmingham 2 brentford 1, birmingham city, birmingham fc, brentford, brentford strikers, brentford transfer rumours, championship 2016, david button, dean, dean smith, foot long hot dogs, football, gogia, graham scott, harlee dean, hoffmann, james tarkowski, john swift, jota, judge middlesbrough, keith stroud, lasse vibe, london, maxime colin, ryan woods, st andrews, transfer rumours, vacation, vibe, weekend offenders | Leave a comment

29 Dec 2015

Reading 1 Brentford 2. A few thoughts, reflections and comments.

There are plenty of eloquent match reports and informed opinions on the various blogs and message boards. So no need for a detailed match report. What does need saying though is that fine margins make results. Brentford were the better side but Reading gave the impression, certainly in the second half of working a bit harder.

The neutral would have enjoyed this game, with end to end movement, an awful referee and three truly excellent goals that would have graced any Champions league game never mind the premiership or championship.

Will Brentford fans see two better goals from their side this season? A 30 yard shot from Ryan Woods that gave the keeper no chance and came out of nowhere at a time that Brentford were not on top, was maybe bettered by the effort from Sergi Canos that he both made and scored. He took an excellent pass from Ryan Woods, and produced two sublime touches with his right foot then switching to his left foot to hit the ball home. The Reading goal from Garath McCleary was made by Matej Vydra, a player I would not mind in Brentford colours, with again a wonderful passing movement that one cannot criticise the Bees defence for conceding.

Those that say we should use our pitch to share with other teams, football or rugby, might like to take a look at the awful pitch at Reading especially in the penalty area and corner regions. It was fairly terrible.

The other point of note was the woeful performance, again , of referee Keith Stroud. He was without doubt the worst official I have witnessed in 2015. His decisions were error strewn, with both sides left in bemusement at times. Most bookings were incomprehensible, with the exception of the sensible decision to give two yellow cards to Michael Hector, both deserved. The first one for a crude and potentially dangerous challenge on Alan Judge might have been deserving of a red card and the second one for some poor simulation in an attempt to win a penalty was also well deserved. But otherwise Mr Stroud annoyed both sets of fans and players with odd and seemingly random decisions that defied the many rules of football that I am aware of. It would be a pleasure not to witness that charade again this season or ever maybe.

Brentford did not play to their best. The defence looked more solid. James Tarkowski started the game hobbling in the warm up and seemed to finish that way too, but was excellent. Ryan woods scored an amazing goal but gave the ball away so many times that this is an area of real concern for the team. However other than the goalscorers the Man of the Match for me was Maxime Colin. An imperious display.

Are Brentford play-off contenders? The mathematics say they are but they need to improve on their goal scoring records. They are playing well and have improved enormously since August but need a clinical striker.

Posted in best football photos, brentford, football, Uncategorized and tagged 2015-16 play offs, awful refereee, best goal 2015, best goals 2015-2016, brentford, brentford canos, brentford fc, brentford promotion, brentford promotion 2015-16, Canos, championship, garath mccleary, griffin park, hector brentford, hector sending off, james tarkowski, keith stroud, keith stroud awful refereee, lionel road, london, london irish, madejski stadium, matej vydra, michael hector, pitch madejski, play off contenders, poor pitch reading fc, reading fc, ryan woods, sergi canos | Leave a comment

03 May 2014

Brentford 2 Stevenage 0. Farewell to League 1 and Hello Fulham.

Too late to write much. But a real celebration today of all that is good about Brentford football club. In truth a meaningless game but one which meant everything to Bees fans. Farewell to League 1. Having watched Brentford for 51 years this season has meant a lot to me and surpasses any of the previous achievements. Brentford have gained promotion and equalled a club record since 1930 of 28 wins in a season. This is not the time to reflect on the season, that will come, but today we saw a decent game with a decent result 2-0 to Brentford. We saw good celebrations and we hope that we did not witness any farewells to Marcello Trotta, George Saville nor Alan judge. We long ago forgot they were on loan. Just enjoy a few photos to remind us of a great day.