grafikhaus
Kraft durch Freude
Right, another weekend of perfect football weather wasted on the utterly-pointless ‘international breaks’. Back to the real stuff…
At the start of this season, I hadn’t started doing the ‘Memries of…’ so it’s a bit more work for me. Enjoy! So here we go, back where we started our Championship adventure and a game against Brentford.
The Bees – like The Blades – were founded in 1889, but we didn’t meet until December 22nd, 1934 when United lost 1-2 in Division Two. We have never met in the FA Cup and only once in the League Cup (26th September, 1962) when United won 4-1 at Brentford.
Since 1904, Brentford have played their home games at Griffin Park in the London Borough of Hounslow. The ground gets its name from the griffin, featured in the logo of Fuller's Brewery, which at one point owned the orchard on which the stadium was built.
After many years delay, the final construction of The Brentford Community Stadium – a 17,250 capacity ground located on Lionel Road near Kew Bridge was due to start in 2018.
This season kicked off our return to The Championship in glorious sunshine with a 1-0 home win against The Bees. This was the highest level at which the two clubs have ever met.
In an incident-packed game, United hit the woodwork twice, had two goals disallowed, saw an incredible triple miss by Brentford and Billy Sharp score the only goal in front of 26,746 fans.
To date, our League results against Brentford read:
Home: P: 15 W: 5 D: 6 L: 4 F: 25 A: 19
Away: P: 14 W: 4 D: 2 L: 8 F: 18 A: 24
Recent-ish results against The Bees:
Full history v Brentford
Although a midweek 0-0 draw at home to Brentford on 1st April, 2014 in Division One may not get the pulses racing, it was memorable for one incident. At the kop end, Kieron Freeman made a clean challenge to win the ball from an attacking Potter. The ref. thought differently and produced a red card for Freeman, failed to give a resultant penalty and – after consulting the lineman – reversed the red card decision and gave a drop-ball which United didn’t contest and the clearly-disgusted Brentford player slammed the ball into the advertising hoardings at the kop end. Our team that night included Jose Baxter, John Brayford, Conor Coady and Jamie Murphy.
Equally controversial was a game at Bramall Lane – again in League One – on 16th April 2013 where the Blades and Bees shared the points in a 2-2 draw. There were 3 red cards ... 4 penalties ...2 missed ... 11 yellow cards ... and it wasn’t even a dirty game ...(sorry, I can’t find a video with all the goals and incidents). The first goal was a penalty when United’s keeper George Long brought down Brentford striker Clayton Donaldson. After conceding this penalty and going 0-1 down, United equalized with a penalty of their own to make it 1-1 and, on the 68th minute, Harry Maguire put the Blades 2-1 in front. Look out for fleeting appearances from Jessica Ennis and Bees goalkeeper Simon Moore making two great saves from Kevin McDonald and Michael Doyle.
Teams from that match:
Finally, my abiding Memrie of games against Brentford came in the home match on 22nd April, 1989. Just a week earlier – on 15th April – was the Hillsborough Disaster where Sheffield Wednesday, the FA, SYPD and some Liverpool fans conspired to send 96 fellow fans to an early grave. The atmosphere before our game was funereal and one of the last songs to be played on the PA before kick-off was Everything But The Girl’s ‘I Don’t Want To Talk About It’. I don’t think I was the only lad on the kop who wept unashamedly. This third-tier game ended 2-2, but I don’t think anybody cared:
Form guide
Incredibly, Brentford are below us in the form guide based on the last six league games - having accrued just seven points out of an available 18. However, both the Blades and Bees (see what I did there?) are handily-placed to mount a late push into the play-off places.
Full Championship form guide
Championship table
Since being promoted from Division One to the Championship in 2013/14 (runners-up to champions Wolves – the Blades finished 7th under Clough), Brentford have been solid contenders finishing tenth last season, ninth the season before and fifth in the 2014/15 season. However a policy of selling their better players and being overtaken by the big-spending clubs has seen a relatively-poor performance this season.
Full Championship table
Men to watch
Ollie Watkins is exactly the kind of player we should be looking to sign in order to progress further. Signed by Brentford from Exeter City last July for £1.8m, he is currently the subject of interest from Bournemouth in a possible £6m move. While £6m may seem fanciful to some Blades fans, this is the kind of fees we’ll have to find. However, there’s no way we can/would want to match the wages Bournemouth could offer.
Definitely missing for Brentford will be Romaine Sawyers who was sent off in the home game v Middlesbrough on 17th March.
At the start of this season, I hadn’t started doing the ‘Memries of…’ so it’s a bit more work for me. Enjoy! So here we go, back where we started our Championship adventure and a game against Brentford.
The Bees – like The Blades – were founded in 1889, but we didn’t meet until December 22nd, 1934 when United lost 1-2 in Division Two. We have never met in the FA Cup and only once in the League Cup (26th September, 1962) when United won 4-1 at Brentford.
Since 1904, Brentford have played their home games at Griffin Park in the London Borough of Hounslow. The ground gets its name from the griffin, featured in the logo of Fuller's Brewery, which at one point owned the orchard on which the stadium was built.
After many years delay, the final construction of The Brentford Community Stadium – a 17,250 capacity ground located on Lionel Road near Kew Bridge was due to start in 2018.
This season kicked off our return to The Championship in glorious sunshine with a 1-0 home win against The Bees. This was the highest level at which the two clubs have ever met.
In an incident-packed game, United hit the woodwork twice, had two goals disallowed, saw an incredible triple miss by Brentford and Billy Sharp score the only goal in front of 26,746 fans.
To date, our League results against Brentford read:
Home: P: 15 W: 5 D: 6 L: 4 F: 25 A: 19
Away: P: 14 W: 4 D: 2 L: 8 F: 18 A: 24
Recent-ish results against The Bees:
Full history v Brentford
Although a midweek 0-0 draw at home to Brentford on 1st April, 2014 in Division One may not get the pulses racing, it was memorable for one incident. At the kop end, Kieron Freeman made a clean challenge to win the ball from an attacking Potter. The ref. thought differently and produced a red card for Freeman, failed to give a resultant penalty and – after consulting the lineman – reversed the red card decision and gave a drop-ball which United didn’t contest and the clearly-disgusted Brentford player slammed the ball into the advertising hoardings at the kop end. Our team that night included Jose Baxter, John Brayford, Conor Coady and Jamie Murphy.
Equally controversial was a game at Bramall Lane – again in League One – on 16th April 2013 where the Blades and Bees shared the points in a 2-2 draw. There were 3 red cards ... 4 penalties ...2 missed ... 11 yellow cards ... and it wasn’t even a dirty game ...(sorry, I can’t find a video with all the goals and incidents). The first goal was a penalty when United’s keeper George Long brought down Brentford striker Clayton Donaldson. After conceding this penalty and going 0-1 down, United equalized with a penalty of their own to make it 1-1 and, on the 68th minute, Harry Maguire put the Blades 2-1 in front. Look out for fleeting appearances from Jessica Ennis and Bees goalkeeper Simon Moore making two great saves from Kevin McDonald and Michael Doyle.
Teams from that match:
Finally, my abiding Memrie of games against Brentford came in the home match on 22nd April, 1989. Just a week earlier – on 15th April – was the Hillsborough Disaster where Sheffield Wednesday, the FA, SYPD and some Liverpool fans conspired to send 96 fellow fans to an early grave. The atmosphere before our game was funereal and one of the last songs to be played on the PA before kick-off was Everything But The Girl’s ‘I Don’t Want To Talk About It’. I don’t think I was the only lad on the kop who wept unashamedly. This third-tier game ended 2-2, but I don’t think anybody cared:
Form guide
Incredibly, Brentford are below us in the form guide based on the last six league games - having accrued just seven points out of an available 18. However, both the Blades and Bees (see what I did there?) are handily-placed to mount a late push into the play-off places.
Full Championship form guide
Championship table
Since being promoted from Division One to the Championship in 2013/14 (runners-up to champions Wolves – the Blades finished 7th under Clough), Brentford have been solid contenders finishing tenth last season, ninth the season before and fifth in the 2014/15 season. However a policy of selling their better players and being overtaken by the big-spending clubs has seen a relatively-poor performance this season.
Full Championship table
Men to watch
Ollie Watkins is exactly the kind of player we should be looking to sign in order to progress further. Signed by Brentford from Exeter City last July for £1.8m, he is currently the subject of interest from Bournemouth in a possible £6m move. While £6m may seem fanciful to some Blades fans, this is the kind of fees we’ll have to find. However, there’s no way we can/would want to match the wages Bournemouth could offer.
) and managed to get a few pints in . 
