Ah, ruined weekends. How I have missed thee.
If truth be told, League Two 2 Premier League 5 isn’t going to define next season any more than beating Met Police 3-0 does.
Granted, you don’t want to get a gubbing at this stage, and there were some decent moments (from us) during the 90 minutes.
Including taking the lead after just 180 seconds, with a Reeves corner finding the head of Joe Lewis to give us one of the best openings going.
Brentford got back into it, and if there’s one thing we need to take into training this week, we need to organise our defence a bit better.
Whether Biler is the answer I don’t know, I don’t think he is. And our manager said only a day or so ago that we’re looking at a left back and one or two others.
I wonder if JJ’s mind has been further focused after this afternoon? I haven’t seen his post-game interview at the time of writing, but I did notice the headline suggesting the scoreline was a tad harsh.
Which may be a fair assessment. After all, the scorer of their first two goals, Igor Thiago, is their record signing at roughly £30m and netted 29 goals for Club Brugge last season.
Another one of their scorers today, Kevin Schade, was another record signing last year at £22m and plays for Germany.
Their other two scorers have acquitted themselves well in the top flight, so maybe we really can’t read too much into this result after all?
To give us credit, when it went 5-1 (and we had a lot of subs) we gave it a go. I’m already jumping on the Matty Stevens bandwagon, and if he continues his pre-season form I’ll be calling you all JCLs.
Of course, we might have had a bit more help on one or two occasions, and we’re already saying that before the proper games start.
We’ll know much more where we are this by the time we play Barnet. Our starting XI definitely looked tired after less than an hour for starters.
And let’s face it – we’re not going to be facing Premier League strikers each week for the next nine months.
As for the rest of it? The last time I did a “proper” SW19 report was away to Swindon as far back as the 20th April, so it’s not just the players who have a bit of ring rust…
Plus points: Lewis and Stevens scoring. Piggy starting to pick up where he left off. Having a go towards the end.
Minus points: Their goals.
The referee’s a…: I’ll be charitable here, and suggest failing to give us a penalty for Kelly being chopped down in similar way to their spot kick is part of the referee himself needing to get match sharp.
And Piggy getting fouled and nothing given, which led to Brentford going up the other end and getting a fifth straight away.
That said, and this is a depressing thought – the officiating isn’t likely to get much better when the season starts. Be warned.
Them: I think it shows the gap when five fair-to-middling Premier League players find it a bit too easy against our lot.
So you can imagine how sobering it must be to see somebody like Haaland making even those players look ordinary.
I don’t think a lot of their team were first choice, perhaps more of what you would expect if you draw them in the Carabao, so it was good to see us match them some of the time.
Just over 1000 from over Isleworth way deciding they didn’t have anything better to do today, although we were more up for it than they were off the field.
It’s funny how we now treat Brentford as Premier League, yet it’s only just over a decade ago we played them at Griffin Park in the JPT.
And while we were winning the Conference South, they were in League Two…
Point to ponder: Even despite today, can we already say this doesn’t look too bad a pre-season?
Granted, there are a few tweaks to be made, at the back especially.
But it was quite noteworthy that at times we looked as physically strong as an actual League game, and there’s a sense we’ll get better.
I’ve never bought the PSFs-are-solely-about-fitness mantra, because you can quickly get a sixth sense about if it’s going to be a shit season.
Taking this fixture as an example, we know we still have to strengthen our defence. But we also saw Stevens scoring, Reeves and Lewis combining, Kelly being denied a penalty and Piggy hitting the bar.
If that’s happening in a game that doesn’t matter, what happens in a fixture where it does?
The jury is still out on our two keepers, from what I’ve seen Goodman doesn’t quite seem so commanding as Ward, but they’ll both benefit from a better back line.
And try saying the last seven words of that last paragraph without your teeth in.
There was a little bit of a competitive edge shown against a Premier League side, and that’s a good sign already.
Granted, this time of year is the phony war, and it only matters from when we play Colchester.
But last season should have taught us that what you do this time of year can affect the next nine months…
Truth is stranger than fiction: 1) £15 for a pre-season was a little bit of a pisstake. And that was if you bought in advance. 2) Was weird seeing home and away fans mixed in the concourses. Maybe not quite a good idea to do it for Charlton. 3) “Premier League you’re having a laugh”. Quite.
Anything else? Not really, only that the attendance of 3458 wasn’t too dis-similar to a competitive fixture at KM.
True, you have to take away a thousand Brentford fans, but even so it’s not a bad turnout for a friendly at a time when many are away.
Perhaps what struck me today was how few people I recognised both in the street beforehand, and in the south stand during the tie.
While that undoubtedly makes your editor feel old, it does hint at a healthy turnover of support that we’ll see more of in the coming years.
Over this summer, and quite recently in fact, I looked up some of the movers and shakers from the bad old days 20+ years ago, and realised that many of them are coming up to retirement age.
If they haven’t reached it already.
SW19 has touched on this subject more than a few times in the past year or so, and probably even before that, but next season may be when it really starts becoming apparent.
IIRC, we’ve sold more season tickets this season than for 2023/24, and very few will be the ones going for the first time since Paul Fishenden played.
This isn’t a bad thing, by the way. The club’s long-term viability relies on the very people who sat in the south stand this afternoon.
Although you have to make them want to come back…
So, was it worth it? Well, it’s either that or watch cricket.
In a nutshell: At least we won’t face Thiago too many times this campaign.