Leeds Contained
Brentford 0 Leeds 0
A battling Brentford performance earned a decent point against table toppers Leeds at Griffin Park.
A crowd of over 9000 saw Andy Scott set his team up in a 4-3-3 formation with David Hunt replacing Sam Wood in the starting eleven.
Brentford started and ended the game quite brightly, and looked dangerous at set pieces throughout with Balkestein and Legge a constant threat - sometimes to each other as they took it in turn late on to steal the ball from each other in front of goal.
In truth though home chances were few and far between with the hard-working Charlie Macdonald forced to feed on long balls into the channels. Ryan Dickson was often our best source of attack with the gallavanting left back charging forwards wherever possible. Let's hope Leeds weren't impressed enough to make a bid for his services in January.
Leeds had the best chances of the game - Beckford found himself in acres of room in the first half but was denied with a strong one handed save from Roger Chesney. The glove-wearing, floppy fringed Becchie - who was fairly irritating throughout - hit the bar for the visitors in the second half. Technically not a shot on target Luciano....
Other annoying Leeds players where whinging pair Gradel (who at one point tried to give himself a free kick) and Capaldi - the latter being eventually booked by a referee who looked overwhelmed at times.
Whilst a point against the league leaders was probably more than any home supporter hoped for prior to the game, it was disappointing not to see us attack in greater numbers and with more venom. Carl Cort would have been a great late substitute as Brentford earnt a string of free kicks and corners.
Hopefully we can apply this system - and application - to away games and start to improve our fortunes away from Griffin Park.
Bees - Szczesny, Foster, Balkestein, Legge, Dickson, Hunt, Bean, O'Connor, Strevens (Saunders), Bostock (Wood), Macdonald.
Unused Subs - Bennett, Wilson, Cort, Murphy, Osborne.
This follows a 0-1 away loss against Tranmere last Saturday with a performance too dire to mention.
The previous Tuesday saw a more promising performance at home, beating Colchester 1-0
Brentford put in arguably their best performance of the season to defeat Play Off contenders Colchester 1-0 and earn their second clean sheet in three days after Saturday's Cup win over Walsall.
Today the Bees showed a real sense of purpose and came out of the blocks well, forcing Colchester back. In the 13th minute MacDonald met Bostock's exquisite cross with a diving header to put the Bees deservedly ahead.
Confidence coursed through their red and white veins with slick one touch football stretching the vistors - but the chances didn't fall cleanly and Colchester slowly fought back into the game.
Aidy Boothroyd's team looked and played like Watford circa 1979 with two giants up front, two wide men and full backs keen to bomb forward at every opportunity.
Brentford responded well and defended properly with Legge and Balkestein exceptional - and Szczesny made four decent saves including a cracker at the feet of Lisbie.
The second half saw Brentford forced back and the midfield with Bean out of sorts was over run but they held firm, kept a good line and ran the clock down well with calm and controlled football deep in the Colchester half.
Thanks to beesotted and BIAS for their match reports.
December 15, 2009
