Brentford v County

County secure their second win a row with an excellent performance at Brentford, with Elding taking home the match ball, and Matty McNeil absolutely outstanding throughout the 90 minutes. Report by Martin

Left	Ahead	Right

As always, click on the pictures for bigger versions

Finally, the run of friends weddings and stag-dos that have been occuring recently for both me and Caz are over, and weekends can go back to "football only". This weekend was to be a decent one, as we were embarking on the Friday afternoon to get down to London for the HISC fans forum. Leaving Stockport shortly before half twelve, we quickly had to abandon any plans to sit near each other due to the reservation system packing in and it being a free-for-all. It was, therefore, that Andy and I ended up eating lunchtime sandwiches in the bit between each carriage. And they wonder why people still use their cars a lot... we got a few disapproving looks from a couple sat at the end of the carriage, who were probably less impressed than the next event, which was to open the first drinks of the day. Two blues down by the time we got to Stoke, we hit a lucky break as they got off the train and we nabbed their seats, and managed to get Caz and Scarf, who were further down the carriage, nearby.

Once we'd got past Stoke, thoughts turned to the strange outfit of the family group next to us. Huge oversized american sports franchise jerseys were in evidence. They weren't NFL tops, or baseball/basketball, so we guessed they were ice hockey, and indeed they were - apparently two teams were playing in London over the weekend. The lady in the group had a magical bag that seemed to contain an infinite supply of sandwiches, crisps, drinks, chocolate bars and just when we thought it was finished, bananas. They quizzed us on our reason for the trip, and were a good laugh!

London soon arrived and it was time to find the hotel. Every time I go back, I often wonder how I managed to live down there for seven years. It's smelly, dirty, the people are rude, and it was in this instance, pouring down. We found the hotel eventually, near Farringdon, with Scarf constantly complaining at my road crossing technique - apparently he kept fearing we'd be run down by buses.

It's still early and Sue's already hanging onto the bar... a long day!	London Pub 1	DJ drumming

Once we checked in, a quick drink in the hotel bar was consumed, before we headed off to a pub I forget the name of. What we did discover, was Double Choc Stout, and despite initial reservations, Caz soon warmed to these and promptly switched to polish a few off. We then headed to the pub for the HISC meeting. Mark Maguire was on the way down, and so was Norman Beverley. After a phone call to say that Mark was about a mile away, we headed outside to flag him down when he appeared. Luckily, a car moved off from a space right next to the pub, and Caz and Sue decided the space was to be Maggies - literally standing in it until he arrived and could park there. I also got a chance to chat with Brian Ross-Meering and Jez Webb who I'd not seen for a good while before the meeting started. The most interesting part that was raised was that Elding was chomping at the bit to get goals - as we were to find out the next day! Norman and Linda appeared not long after, and there were more than a few beers drunk before closing time by the HISC/Peels people in attendance. We ended up in a chinese at around 1.15am, ordered a set menu, and it all started to get a bit hazy.... so much so that Andy didn't even know the next day that we'd eaten there, or that he'd eaten squid - "I did what now?" what his response to this news.

Saturday dawned bright and early - with a phonecall from a giddy phil, who couldn't sleep and had got the 5.22am out of Stockport. He wanted to meet up for breakfast. Muttering bitterly about having to get up, we rang Scarf to get him raised - you can't trust Students to get out of bed early - he hung up on me twice but surfaced on time.

It was a ropey bunch that set off towards Euston, where we met Phil. A fantastic fry-up later, and the mood perked up. We headed down to Brentford, on the world's hottest tube before a train from Waterloo took us to Brentford. Shortly before 11.45am, we were outside the Griffin. The doors were all shut, and it was dark inside the pub, and I assumed that it'd be opening at 12pm. So we settled down to wait on the benches outside. Five minutes later, a local turned up, looked at us with a puzzled face, and opened the door to the pub and went inside. I got up, peered in and there were literally five or six barmen/maids waiting to serve. I looked back to the group, and as on, they all had a "YOU STUPID IDIOT!" face on. Thankfully, it was only 5 minutes or so, and we quickly settled in.

Before long, it was time to head to the ground. We were in the upper tier of a different stand to usual, and while it was vertigo inducing looking down at the near goal, it was an excellent view, and it had potential for us to make a right racket. DJ and his chaps had brought the Scarf, and the large flags, and it looked very impressive when the teams ran out - so much so Brentford fans after said that we behaved more like Italian fans than UK with the singing and attitude!

Elding Pen 1	Elding Scores	Celebrations

With the match underway, it didn't take long to realise that County were up for this. We were creating chances, and having the better of the game. Before we knew it, the ball was winging into the box were Elding (or McNeil - I forget!) - was waiting. The Brentford defender marking him made a really clumsy attempt to get the ball - I thought that the County player may have handballed it in the process, but as he tumbled to the floor with the Brentford player pushing him, we had a clear shout for a penalty, which the ref gave. The Brentford tactics were a bit mystifying here as we'd already seen a few more digs and fouls in the box - see the picture of the chap climbing all over Elding - which wasn't given. Why they persisted with this I have no idea. Elding grabbed the ball, and put it firmly away, with the keeper diving to his right and the ball going the other way. Elding looked rather pleased to have scored, and up in the stand, there was a proper goal mental going on.

Off the pitch, there was a commotion by the dugouts, and it soon became clear that Gannon had been sent to the stands, with quite a number of Brentford fans to his left gesturing at him.

Matters got better with the award of a second penalty. I can see why the Brentford fans and players were less happy with it - as McNeil this time was fouled and hit the deck. As above though, if you're going to clatter into people in the box, you're always running a risk of a penalty being given and they should have figured this out sooner.The ref blew, Matty gave a clenched fist salute to the fans, and the Brentford players lost the plot a bit at this and the game looked like bubbling over. In the midst of it, Elding again got the ball, and put it in the same spot. The keeper dived the right way, and got a hand on it, but couldn't keep it out. The goal celebrations were loud and long, and Elding made a point of showing solidarity with Jim by running over to the section of fans that had been goading him when Jim was sent to the stand, and striking a pose. Mischievous, and certaining infuriating for the Bees fans - it's happened to us so many times though that from a County point of view, it was nice to give some stick back to someone!

2-0 up and County playing well, the only concern now was what Brentford would do. Their players had a red mist, their fans were up in arms, but County rode out the storm and walked off to thunderous applause from the travelling fans.

This wasn't a pen! Go figure...	Elding Scores second pen	Elding off to greet Brentford fans and Jim

The second half saw County continue where they left off - Brentford were given more space to play, but we always looked like we could score again. This was the case with McNeil winning a header to leave Elding with a clear run at goal, and he slotted it home to get his hat-trick before celebrating by the corner flag. The County players were enjoying themselves, and off the pitch, a new bonding session was occuring between fans and McNeil in particular, who was getting kicked all over the place and abused by the home fans for their views on him winning the second penalty. A loud rendition of "He's here, he's there, he's every effing where Matt McNeil... Matt McNeil" was booming out amongst other songs from the travelling County fans. Matty was absolutely outstanding in this game - he was nearly all of the headers and despite Elding getting a hat-trick, I still would have McNeil to shade the Man of the Match award. He may not score that many, but when he plays like this, others will get lots of chances to score from his hard work.

In fairness, quite a few players were having a good game, and we sat back a bit to ride out the rest of the game. Matters nearly were made perfect when Brentford scored, but it was ruled out, to obvious disappointment of the Bees fans who didn't realise it was disallowed at first. As you can imagine, the away end was enjoying this greatly, though just as a rousing "You thought you had scored... you were wrong" started up, they spoilt the mood by having the cheek to score to make it 3-1. The chant was amended to "you were right".

So... 10 minutes left, 3-1 up away from home - the game should be over, right? Not a bit of it as Brentford impressed by upping the tempo and chucking everything, including the kitchen sink at us. They made more chances in the 10 minutes than they did for the other 80, but thankfully couldn't score again... if it had been 3-2 it would have got very nervy!

County Fans	This was HT	A Surprised DJ

In the event, we rode it out and finished with a deserved three points. It was a good trip back up to Stockport, and the result was celebrated at Chunky HQ in a manner befitting. One of the more enjoyable away days, this one.