nico yennaris | Arcticterntalk.org

Archive for the tag “nico yennaris”

Although the result shows a draw this game should go down in the annals as a game that could start a season of struggle. Many fans struggled to get to the game on time due to roadworks in the area and to avoid the dangers of Knotweed.

In short Brentford with the exception of Daniel Bentley and Ryan Woods were poor. Off the pace all afternoon. Abysmal tactics. Disjointed substitutions. I am struggling to recall a single tackle Brentford won and if they won a single header then I missed it.

Sheff Wed should have been even 4-0 up at half time . An astonishing miss from under the crossbar will go viral on Twitter later. Brentford were second to every ball. The Brentford goal from Vibe was a comedy of errors from the keeper Westwood who having kicked the ball against Vibe then watched it trickle into his net.

The referee managed later to send off two players when really he should have had better options. The game hardly contained a meaningful foul.

The Sheff Wed equaliser had been coming and when it did arrive in injury time the Brentford players played the remaining minutes seemingly hanging on to the point.

Why were Bees so poor? Certainly the physical presence of their opponents was one factor yet that does not explain the abysmal work rate. The whole midfield were anonymous and with the exception of the tenacious Ryan Woods one might have been excused not knowing that Yennaris and McCleod were even playing.

In contrast Daniel Bentley was superb making world class saves. So simply there is no real explanation for this poor performance. But a worrying sign of what might lie ahead.

Posted in Uncategorized and tagged bees, brentford, brentford 1 Sheff Wed 1, dean smith, hoffman, nico yennaris, ryan woods

06 Apr 2016

Darkness Descends Over Bolton

No Bees fan will object to 6 points in a week even though the opposition was truthfully dire. For the first time in many weeks or even months, Bees fans came to the game with an expectation of winning. A healthy 3-0 victory a few days previously at Nottingham Forest provided the belief that winning against the bottom side in the Championship would be a likely outcome.

Griffin Park looking good under floodlights

Brentford seem to be praying for victory

The evening was perfect for football and even the River Thames at Brentford looked pleasant enough doused in muddy water. A few strange items, like an old toilet residing beside the water filled with what I hope was old leaves.

River Thames at Brentford

Outdoor toilets

New Road

The game was far from a classic but as much as Brentford ever do, they won this game easily at a canter. The Bolton defending was dreadful and frankly a decent Ryman South team might also have beaten them last night. The evening was perfect for football and the result turned out also to be perfect, a 3-1 victory, marred ever so slightly by Alan McCormack giving away a penalty. Brentford played decently enough and a few sparks of what we saw earlier in the season began to emerge. Oddly Nico Yennaris was the man of the match, although Lasse Vibe took the plaudits for his two goals, but Yennaris in central midfield looked comfortable and is learning how to tackle, though was outmuscled a few times . This was an encouraging performance that meant the game was over before half time with Brentford leading 3-0. It was surprising that as many as 350 Bolton fans made the trip on a tuesday evening to watch their appalling side.

Lets focus on Bolton. They were without doubt the worst side to visit Griffin Park this season and were as awful as Blackpool last season. Their likely trajectory will be similar too as this team looks poor even by League 1 standards, and I could back Colchester bottom in league 1 to beat this current Bolton team. They seemed generally poor footballers, but also dispirited and at times totally disinterested. There were no redeeming features. The defending was non league. Emile Heskey was an unused substitute but his body shape looked more likely to succeed in WWF than in professional football. Time to call it a day. Even he when warming up in front of the cheerful New Road crowd failed to acknowledge the generous applause he got. Darren Pratley committed enough fouls to have got a lifetime ban and seemed slow in pace and thought. A shadow of the former footballer he was.

So two wins in a few days essentially means that we will not get relegated and talk is of aiming for a top ten finish. But we should not get too carried away. Some of our defending was again dire last night. David Button almost gave a goal away by giving the ball away a few yards from goal and Harley Dean made numerous errors that somehow went unpunished. This was however an improved performance with the team looking more balanced than for a long while. Saunders and Woods out wide and Yennaris and McCormack more centrally gave the midfield a formation that seemed to work. Vibe scored two goals and the second one a very neat header. So we are in a lower mid-table position and thats probably right, maybe even slightly flattering. But it is a building block and we are staying up and Brentford fans will have woken up happy this morning.

River Thames at Brentford

Posted in Uncategorized and tagged alan judge, bolton, bolton fans, bolton fc, brentford, brentford fc, Brentford Football Club, brentford new ground, brentford new stadium, darren pratley, david button, dire bolton, emile heskey, emile heskey bolton, football, griffin park, harlee dean, harley dean, london, london football teams, nico yennaris, ryan woods, sam saunders | Leave a comment

24 Feb 2016

1 Comment

The Clouds Lift Over Griffin Park. Brentford 3 Wolves 0

There is no doubt that Brentford have been a spiral of disaster the last 2 months, and this is reflected in the win ratio of 1 win in the previous 9 games, and in the plethora of negativity that followed the Derby debacle on saturday. Something had to change.

Clouds over Brentford seen while flying in for the game

Fans arrived late as often they do for an evening fixture giving the impression till almost the last minute that there would be no crowd. In fact almost 9000 hardy souls braved a bitter and literally freezing evening to watch an entertaining game.

Griffin Park By Night

There was little agreement before the game on what the outcome might be and even less agreement on the team selection other than something had to change to bring back the fighting spirit and work rate that we saw earlier in the season. In reality the summoning of two of the best players in the club, John Swift and Sergi Canos gave the side width and skill, and Nico Yennaris recovered from a hideous performance in central midfield on saturday to have an excellent game at right back. The work rate in midfield was probably double that of saturday and from the start the elevated work rate and the chances created got the crowd going. In the end a 3-0 victory did not flatter Brentford and it should have been greater. We must not however lose site of how abject Wolves were. Watching the game it was difficult to believe that they had 40 points this season and sitting seemingly in mid-table security. They were poor, very poor. Never the less a good performance that should keep the crowds interested for the remainder of the season. Yet margins are thin in this league, with Brentford comfortably winning 1-0 in the second half, only a superb save from David Button kept the Bees ahead. Conceding a goal then might have led to one of the many Brentford collapses we have seen this season.

Were there any downsides to the game? Only one for me. No cornish pasties. What kind of football catering does not have cornish pasties, forcing me to sample a Chicken Balti pie, which I can sum up as saying could be a vegetarian option lacking anything I could find that resembled chicken. Edible none the less.

Lastly a strange emerging feature of watching Brentford lately. As the crowd streams out of the New Road stand, a group of 2-3 steward looking characters in cheerful fashion thank the crowd for coming and have a safe trip home. Brentford are emerging into the customer service era and will achieve that for me when cornish pasties return.

So the gleaming clouds were an omen and indeed the sun was truly shining on Brentford and their fans at 10 pm last night.

The Skies above Brentford before kick off

Clouds Gleaming over Brentford

Floodlights over Brentford

A final thought. I will miss this old ground when it goes. We know it has to and understand why but the character and atmosphere is what sums up real football , even in the absence of cornish pasties.

Posted in brentford, Uncategorized and tagged brentford, brentford 3 wolves 0, brentford 3 wolves o, brentford fc, brentford floodlights, Brentford Football Club, brentford new ground, brentford new stadium, brentford promotion, brentford v wolves, championship, championship relegation contenders, cloud photo, clouds, clouds over brentford, cornish pasties, cornish pasty, david button, derby county, derby fc, football, football catering, football club, football crowds, football fans, football floodlights, football food, football grounds, football photos, football stewards, griffin park, griffin park photo, griffin park photo lights, john swift, london, molineaux, nico yennaris, peter gelson, sergi canos, sunset brentford, wolves manager sacked, wolves relegation

09 Jan 2016

2 Comments

A Very Wet Brentford Performance.Brentford 0 Walsall 1

As Brentford fans some weeks are best forgotten and it is better to remove those bees coloured spectacles and see the game for what it was. Brentford were comprehensively beaten by a hard working and decent Walsall side.

An excellent turn out from Walsall that filled the away end.

Fans arrived mostly by car but the potential was there to arrive by boat if they wished, and with such a wet game that might have been a good option.

The first half ended 1-0 to Walsall which is how the game ended but it was totally one-sided. The second half was better for Bees once Alan Judge came on, but frankly they never really seemed likely to score with the exception of one excellent save from the walsall keeper.

FullSizeRender-1

Why were Brentford so bad? Conspiracy theorists will no doubt argue that the cup is not important or maybe that transfer speculation had upset the side. I don’t know, maybe both are true. But the reality was that Walsall were the better side, their work rate was higher , their players seemed technically better. The five players brought in from last week did nothing to suggest they should be chosen next week. The swirling rain made watching even from Row G a rather wet experience. The plus point was the introduction of Marco Djuricin half way through the second half.

FullSizeRender

Hands on head time maybe?

The Bees fans on Twitter formed their views of this game which align with mine above. What we learned for sure was that Bees have no strikers. Midfield needs strengthening . But above all the worry that it was not the result but the performance that is most of concern. Players like McCormack did not perform. Swift looked undone by the physical attention of the Walsall players. Hoffman just looked poor really, not a championship player.