Bees Win In Portugal

New faces Yoann Barbet, Konstantin Kerschbaumer and Akaki Gogia all started for us but it was the youngster Jermaine Udumaga who scored first for us on a hot day over in Portugal.

Gogia was the only man to keep his place after the interval and Gray was unlucky not to score soon into the second half after his shot was blocked by a defender.

Farense used to be in Portugal’s top tier all the way back in 2002 but have descended all the way down to the 6th tier but proved good opponents and even had a shot cannon back off the crossbar.

We doubled our lead when Gray was alert to score after a quickly taken free kick and Dougie added a third just before full time.

This new era has begun with a good 3-0 win and we have got a glimpse of what to expect throughout the season.

We played a 4-3-3 for all of the game, using 2 deep lying midfield players and 3 players pushed very high up the pitch.

Odubajo continued his role at right back in the first half and looked Brentford’s best player. He pushed up the pitch and looked to create a lot, eventually assisting Udumaga’s first goal.

We seemed to dominate the game but Farense did not let us settle and made it hard for us to press high up the pitch. It was good to hear that our defence had more control than last season but we were still playing attractive football.

Overall, I would say a good start for the Bees in this new era.