3 beers ordered: Downed the 1st before the 2nd was poured

Our recent article, out on the 15th, was asking if you thought the 15th November (2005) might have been the Bees best ever day and we explained why we thought so! That day was when hindsight saw the tide turn to point to a closer horizon of optimism and maybe even financial security. Promotions, well maybe we could at last hope. No-one dared mentioned the ‘Europe’ word back then.

So, we asked you what you reckoned might be your best ever – or worst – Bees day. The memories were stirred and tell us you certainly did and our photo above falls into the ‘worst’ category!

NIgel, below, watched Bobby Ross secure promotion with a penalty against Exeter on April 22nd 1972 1-0 after ….. years in the 4th. Frank Blunstone managed the whole season with 14 players

Here is what you all said!

Good afternoon,
Hello my darkest days following Brentford FC was in January 1967. Our local rivals from W12 wanted to buy us out! We had debts apparently of £104k at the time? As a lad of 8 then, I had a dislike for our W12 neighbours then and I still do! The greatest day, was at Wembley in May 2021. Back at the top table of English football after 74 years.
Ian B

xx Been lots of ups and downs since beating Peterborough 5-1 in 1971, my first match. [18th September 1971]. However, I am sticking with relatively recent times.
Worst – Trotta’s missed penalty (here it is) and Doncaster taking the auto promotion slot. Never have I felt LOWER leaving Griffin Park than that day.
Best – Beating Arsenal two nil on that wonderful August evening. Top of the Premier league. The crowd sang all night, it was magical. Worth the entire season ticket cost for that night alone.
Terry L xx Best day – 29th May 2021 – Beating Swansea in the Championship Play Off Final at Wembley securing Premiership Football. Worst day – 12th November 2018 – Sadly the day Robert Rowan died
Roger B xx Not absolutely my worst day supporting BFC, but a disappointment nonetheless. Met Peter Gilham on the 65 bus heading towards Richmond. He assured me that we were going to break our play off hoodoo and beat Yeovil. Well, that was a complete no-show on the day, wasn’t it? Haven’t had a chance to speak to him since then and remind him of his prophetic words. Still, it’s worked out quite nicely since then, hasn’t it? [BBC match report] Gary D xx Worst day ….. being away for a bank holiday weekend and packing up early Monday morning and getting back for the Bees game against Bristol city and getting beaten 0-4. Best day 1…. Promotion to the championship on a good Friday, we needed many results to go our way that day and they did….. Best day 2… Beating Bournemouth on our way to the Premier league losing the 1st leg 1-0 then going another goal down then scoring 3. Stephen S xx THIS was one of the happiest days of my life. Bobby Ross secured us promotion with a penalty against Exeter (22nd April 1972 1-0) after years in the 4th. Frank Blunstone did the whole thing with 14 players, including the club legend- giant John O’Mara (27 goals in the season). I am in the picture aged 12 top left sharing a black and red school scarf with my friend Tim Doherty. I recognise four other school friends at the back – including, I am certain the long time programme contributor David Ohl. This appeared in the Middlesex County Times and I went to their office and ordered an A4 copy for 10p. Nigel M xx Hello – Yes – Ron Noades brings back really unpleasant thoughts but my personal worst day was at the end of the 1957/58 season. I was in the RAF stationed at RAF Colerne, near Bath. There was a possibility of promotion back to Div 2 and it rested in the hands of Watford beating Brighton on the last day, they both had a game in hand. I thumbed it from Bath to London and then down to Brighton to support Watford, would you believe. The ground was packed, I couldn’t get in and spent the match time, writhing outside with the sound of SIX home goals dashing any chance of us going up. Only later did I hear that Brighton had bought the game and even the Watford players admitted they had “lain down” and not put up any opposition. I couldn’t then, nor even now, understand why, when everyone knew it was fixed, were there no repercussions. I thumbed it back in time for my next duty, fuming and hating Brighton and Watford even more than Fulham & QPR, is that even possible?? Bob L (First match 1945) xx As a Mancunian Bees fan I had been asked for years why I would support a team hundreds of miles from home who had spent the entirety of my time following them in the lower reaches of the leagues. Most people didn’t know what division we were in or indeed where Brentford was. That’s what makes it so difficult to pick a best Bees day between the Ivan Toney inspired win at the Etihad or the 3-1 home win over United, laying to rest the ghost of my worst bees day which came at Old Trafford when Scott McTominay scored twice in stoppage time to deprive me of the chance of seeing us complete the double of victories over the giants local to me. Matthias Jensen sealing the win beyond 90 minutes only added to the closure, the Dane having put us in front at the theatre of dreams. The people of Manchester certainly know who we are now Chris H xx

January 1964, I think the game against Middlesbrough, [we did play Middlesbrough, Jan 4th, 1964, FA Cup R3, 2-1 Bees!] 2 weeks before I gave birth to our first child, Sarah Jane (now Todd) who has been a Bees supporter since her dad took her and her brother Richard (badgerbee) David to watch a match when Sarah was 9 years old and Richard was 7 years old. they are both avid supporters and season ticket holders for years.
Maureen (81)
Roger (86 – a Bee since the age of 15)

xx If you are looking for best and worst days as a bee …. I assume some will already have said this but Doncaster at home. The infamous last minute penalty that meant that we didn’t go up. Was just stunned after it. Walked down to Kew to the Greyhound immediately the game in a daze, my phone was blowing up with texts from everyone I knew who knew I was a Bees fan to say they couldn’t believe it etc etc – just walked in ordered 3 pints of San Miguel (for myself..) and finished the first one before the 2nd had been poured. Just nothing else like it, ever. If any game was “it’s brentford, innit” it was this one. Everyone knows the story, everyone knows the rest – but at that moment, the dazed and confused and just numb blank shellshock of what just happened I doubt will ever be surpassed. The one that still seethes and rankles – Brentford 2, Notts County 2​ (Monday 12th April 1993) This was in Division 1 (after the Premier League reorganisation) and we had just finally been promoted elated the year before. We had started well and were something like 8th in December and then it went wrong. We were sliding sliding down the table and scrabbling for points. With just a few to go we had this home match – and were leading 2-1 at the 90th minute and we all thought job done. And then the game carried on and carried on. For all those fans who always have the “the ref is going to play until they equalise” theories – this is one of those days. We had 2 minutes, 3 minutes, 5 minutes and increasingly up to 7 minutes – when no one could think of any stoppages until finally, finally Notts County got an equaliser. Stunned, devastated and furious. we ended up relegated that season – but if the ref had blown when he should, we would have had the win – the extra 2 points would have kept us up. The day that I will never let go as an injustice!
Stuart

xx

 

 

 

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