Brentford 4 – 2 Bradford City [AET]

Brentford eventually eased passed Bradford City and although the away side were ahead in the tie twice we never seemed to be threatened.

The bees started with the first team spine ripped out of it. Moore, Dean, Forshaw, Forrester and Donaldson were all left out of the matchday squad or on the bench. Moore’s replacement was Gounet who had very little to do.

Eight minutes of the match were missed due to having to queue up at the turnstiles. Tut, tut bees, sort it out Brentford etc.

By the time we had got in terrace talk was of the two good saves their keeper had made. On 34 minutes Legge twisted himself in knots with little or no pressure on him and gave the ball away to a Bradford player who ran into the box, the ball eventually falling for Reid to smash into the net giving Gounet no chance.

Just before half time Trotta was felled in the penalty area, got up and sent the keeper the wrong way with the resulting penalty. No more than we deserved. We had a hatful of chances in the first half, while Bradford were mainly shooting from distance and playing some rather grim hoofball.

The second half went by in the same vein, lots of bees chances but nothing going in and some very good saves from their keeper.

A few substitutions strengthened the bees with Clayton, Forrester and Dave joining in to up the tempo and try and kill off the game before full time.

Unfortunately, this didn’t happen and extra time was played. Within minutes of the restart Bradford were awarded a penalty and Alan Connell smashed it beyond Gounet. Inexplicably after a small burst of joy, he turned to the bees fans and did a shush sign. Up until then he had been given no abuse at all and certainly no serious attempt at a Brentford reject song. I think he was always a bit of a favourite of ours, we liked his runs and tricky play and we let him go back to Bournemouth when he was feeling homesick. So, as I say, inexplicable but he then got absolute dog’s abuse! Brilliant. The atmosphere rose up several notches and then the bees turned the screw and three quick goals later from Trotta, Forrester and Donaldson put the game to bed. job done.

Saunders and Dallas on the wings weren’t really producing much in the first half although Dallas improved greatly in the second and got a good ovation when eventually substituted. Gounet had so little to do it’s not easy making an assessment although he may have that continental tendency to punch the ball clear. Legge’s failing s are showing more and more when you consider the ball playing skills of the people around him although he did play a lovely long ball into the channel. Hayes, gets into some great positions and has some good flicks, he just needs to get a few goals but contributed well. Trotta just gets better and better.

So we are the first team to beat Bradford in any cup competition this season and we now have what is likely to be a sell out on Saturday against Stevenage. Although I guess a lot of tickets were bought for friends who are not going to bother turning up. Expect a lot of spares on the day.

Gounet; Logan, Legge, Craig, Bidwell; Dallas (sub Donaldson 78 mins), Adeyemi (sub Diagouraga 64 mins), Douglas, Saunders (sub Forrester 71 mins); Hayes, Trotta

Subs (not used): Lee, Dean, Barron, Oyeleke