Good Easter for the Bees

Hartlepool 0 - 0 Brentford

Brentford returned home from Hartlepool on Easter Monday with a potentially valuable point.

Richard Lee made a decent save in each half, the Bees keeper reliable as ever behind a resolute defence.

Brentford offered little going forwards in the first half - a Clayton Donaldson effort was easily saved by Scott Flinders just before the break.

The best chance of the match fell late to Toumani Diagouraga but the midfielder spooned Clayton Donaldson's driven cross haplessly wide.

The point gained makes Saturday's home clash with Notts County a potential humdinger as Brentford seek to force themselves into the playoff places.

Bees - Lee, Thompson, Osborne, Dean, Bidwell, Saunders (Pim), Logan, McGinn (Morrison), Dave, Douglas, Donaldson (Bean)

Unused Bees - Legge, Forrester

Brentford 3 - 0 Bury

Brentford notched up their fifth win in succession with an easy win against Bury at Griffin Park on Easter Saturday.

Frankly, the first half was pretty dull with Bury unadventurous and the Bees finding it tough going breaking down a solid midfield and back line.

Brentford kept on probing and finally got the breakthrough they were looking for on the stroke of half time. Donaldson was fouled on the edge of the box and Saunders curled the free kick around their wall, via a gap created by Marcus Bean. The ball just snuck inside the post on the keepers side. Lovely goal.

Douglas was clattered into very heavily early in the second half. It looked like he was going to be stretchered off but eventually got to his feet and managed to play another 12 minutes before being substituted by Thompson.

Meantime, Brentford managed to grab a second goal. Logan played the ball inside to Donaldson who stepped away from it at the last moment for Saunders to find himself in acres of space on the edge of the box. He pushed the ball forward and swept a shot passed the keeper. Saunders goal celebration was to attempt a knee slide, but it went horribly wrong as his knees hit the ground they dug into the pitch and he fell flat on his face. He did seem very shaken up but pulled himself together, picked up the two divots he'd created and held them aloft to the cheering crowd.

Once Thompson came on and Logan was pushed up into midfield his game improved. Before that, and much to the frustration of the home crowd, and I'm sure himself, his balls up the line were always going into touch. Once in midfield and pushing forward his balls were coming inside to much better effect.

Five minutes later Brentford made it three when Logan was fed by Donaldson on the right and smashed the ball passed the keeper. Logan's celebration was to strike one of those stupid heroic poses in front of the fans but Morrison was having none of it and pushed Logan up to the barrier to celebrate with the fans.

I can't help feeling that the Brentford players are enjoying themselves as much as we are at the moment.

Anyway, Bury missed an easy chance very late on and it was all academic by then. A slow start by the bees, and to be honest the fans were pretty quiet first half too. It's almost like we don't dare believe we can keep this run going but we enjoy it when it does.

There was a lot of good work from Saunders both on the ball and off it and he seems to have responded well to criticisms of shirking tackles earlier in the season. Maybe once he signed a contract he realised he could afford to get injured!

Karleigh remains a good defender but his distribution has gone backwards again.

So, we find ourselves three points from the play offs and we face a very tough trip to Hartlepool on Easter Monday. Six in a row?

Bees: Lee; Logan, Osborne (sub Legge 81 mins), Dean, Bidwell; Bean, Douglas (sub Thompson 64 mins), Dave; Saunders; Donaldson, Morrison (sub McGinn 73 mins)

Subs (not used): Moore, Forrester

With thanks to beesotted for their match reports

April 11, 2012