Curse Of The Ex

The Brentford run in the FA Cup is over for another year after the third round defeat against Walsall at Griffin Park on Saturday.

A first half goal from Sam Mantom, who curled home a fine effort 10-minutes before half time was enough to see Dean Smith’s former Side Walsall go away with something, of what they’ll feel was ‘revenge’ following his departure for Brentford a couple of months ago….

Had it not been for Walsall ‘keeper Neil Etheridge, who did make some good saves, Brentford would have got a replay at least with the frame of the goal also denying James O’Connor late on when he hit the post.

The statistics say that Smith’s ‘only three of his eight-matches’ since becoming Bees boss, however this is a little deceptive as December was a good month, if it wasn’t he wouldn’t have been a nomination for the Manager of the Month would he!

These were the other results.

Saturday 9th January 2016
Wycombe 1-1 Aston Villa
Arsenal 3-1 Sunderland
Birmingham 1-2 Bournemouth
Brentford 0-1 Walsall
Bury 0-0 Bradford
Colchester 2-1 Charlton
Doncaster 1-2 Stoke
Eastleigh 1-1 Bolton
Everton 2-0 Dag & Red
Hartlepool 1-2 Derby
Huddersfield 2-2 Reading
Hull 1-0 Brighton
Ipswich 2-2 Portsmouth
Leeds 2-0 Rotherham
Middlesbrough 1-2 Burnley
Newport P-P Blackburn
Northampton 2-2 MK Dons
Norwich 0-3 Man City
Nottm Forest 1-0 QPR
Peterborough 2-0 Preston
Sheff Wed 2-1 Fulham
Southampton 1-2 Crystal Palace
Watford 1-0 Newcastle
West Brom 2-2 Bristol City
West Ham 1-0 Wolves
Man Utd 1-0 Sheff Utd

Sunday 10th January 2016
Oxford Utd 3-2 Swansea
Carlisle 2-2 Yeovil
Chelsea 2-0 Scunthorpe

These games are to played.

Tottenham v Leicester 16:00
Cardiff v Shrewsbury 18:00

Some interesting results (so far), with some upsets, but on the whole those expected to go through did go through or at least remained in the competition! Well, I would say anyway.

But the stand out results, with them causing upsets to progress, have to be the wins for Walsall, Colchester and Peterborough beating Brentford (Bees boss Dean Smith’s former side) one-nil, Charlton two-one and Preston two-nil respectively, to put all of the League 1 side through against the Championship sides to see them into the next round keep those cup dreams alive.

The win of the round, (so far) has to be the three-two win for League 2 side over Swansea at the Kassam Stadium, which is almost certainly the win of the round!

Mentions have to go to Wycombe for holding struggling Premier League side Aston Villa to a one-one draw at Adams Park with Eastleigh (with the game eventually going ahead after a number of pitch inspections) denied a win by a late Bolton equaliser in a one-one draw.

Portsmouth who were also within a couple of minutes of beating Ipswich who grabbed a two-two draw late on at Portman Road with League 2 promotion rivals Northampton also involved in a two-all draw with another Championship side MK Dons with one more two-two draw seeing a dramatic injury-time goal from West Brom denying struggling Championship side Bristol City a win over the Premier League side.

Following the defeat we know our name isn’t going to be in the pot for the next round so it’ll be a case of ‘concentrating on the league’ and getting back into the play-off places.