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Preview Percy returns to action after his Cup week off. He’s refreshed and full of new and incisive ideas. Well actually he isn’t it’s the same old twaddle really but you try writing these opening paragraphs each week. Here’s his take on this weekends visit of Brentford...

Next up we return home after what seems to have been ages to play host to Brentford. Kick-off on Saturday is at 3pm and if you’re travelling from anywhere east of Stratford you may want to stop reading this and leave for the match now.




There are no trains between Liverpool Street and Shenfield, including on the Elizabeth (God Bless Her) Line. Also there’s no trains between Upminster and Pitsea and also the C2C trains that normally serve Liverpool Street will be diverted to Fenchurch Street. Check before you leave and all that.

So Brentford then. Bit of a patchy season for them. They’ve never really got a run going as such – the colour-coded result chart that Daisy fills out every week is a veritable patchwork of colour. Their last six games for example are fairly typical of the season as a whole, reading LWDLWL.

The defeats in that run all came at home, to Arsenal (1-3), Liverpool and Spurs (both 0-2). The wins both came away at Southampton (5-0) and at Palace (2-1) which was interesting given that until the Southampton game on 4 January they hadn’t got an away win all season. To complete the set the draw came at home to Man City. All of which has left them in 11th place with 31 points from the 24 played so far, four points and five places above us.

Daisy tells me that transfer activity in the window was limited to a couple of loan signings. 20 year-old right back Michael Kayode arrived from our old “friends” Fiorentina on a loan-with-an-option-to-buy deal. Having started off with Juventus in the Old Lady’s youth system, which sounds a bit rude now I say that out loud, he moved to Serie whatever the Italian is for “D” side Gozzano where he helped them get promoted to Serie whatever the Italian is for “C”.

This brought him to the attention of Fiorentina where he went back into the youth system, also featuring in the squad that finished (haha) runners-up in the Thursday Night Conference League in 2023. He finally made his Serie A (I know that one) debut in August of 2023 scoring once in 31 league appearances. He’s also been capped at Italian U18, U19 and U21 age levels.

The other loan arrival was 18-year-old Romelle Donovan who arrived on an end of season deal from Birmingham City. The deal seems to be more in the way of a “look-see for the future” arrangement, with the player expected to feature more for the Brentford “B” team in that odd set up they have over there, than the first XI. Donavan has caps at England U18 and U19 level.

And so to the wild and wacky world of Association Football. Well there was even more commotion at the BBC than usual last weekend as the Corporation took time out from dealing with hushing up whatever the latest scandal is involving the appalling Strictly Come Bloody Dancing to tie themselves in knots over how they should react to Plymouth’s deserved victory over Liverpool in the Cup last weekend.

On the one hand they’d normally be delighted to cover a spot of giant killing. On the other hand it’s Liverpool who for the BBC can do no wrong and where even the loss of a point prompts the breaking out of corporate sackcloth and ashes.

In the end in true BBC style they adopted a bit of a compromise. For Plymouth they tried their best to sound pleased for them – very nearly but not quite pulling it off in the post-match interviews. Meanwhile sombre music was played on Radio Merseyside as a show of support. Plymouth meanwhile went on to beat Millwall 5-1 a few days later. I’m beginning to warm to Plymouth.

Meanwhile in a series I shall call “reasons to laugh at Man Utd part 2,345” more belt-tightening seems to be on the cards as part-owners INEOS prepare themselves for legal action from, of all people, the All Blacks over a collapsed sponsorship deal. Which is why the Salford whingers are apparently considering somewhere between 100-200 redundancies in addition to the 250 already made.




I was amused to note that amongst the other cuts under consideration is the closure of their London Office in Kensington which, apparently, is there for them to be able to market themselves to Global partners, because they don’t have email in Manchester obviously.

If I might make a suggestion Sir Jim, if you must maintain a presence in the Capital, why not move the office to Kingston Upon Thames? The rents are cheaper and you can find staff from your support base.

And so to us. Well if you can remember that far back a decent and spirited performance failed to get the point it deserved at least thanks, yet again, to the incompetence of match officials.

Stuart Atwell is not a good referee. He wasn’t a good referee at National League Level, He was awful in Leagues One and Two and got even worse in the one – yes one! – season he had in the Championship before getting promoted to the increasingly ironically-named “Select Group”.

He even managed an unprecedented temporary relegation to the Championship for his poor performances, something that is almost impossible to do once you’re in the so-called Select Group. He performed poorly in the Championship once more so, naturally, he got promoted back up to the Premier League. So nobody should be surprised that Atwell continues to make a complete Horlicks of everything he touches really.

His transgressions came in a week or so where we saw Leicester depart the FA Cup due to an offside that was discernible with the naked eye from Mars. As Martin Samuel put it in last weekend’s Sunday Times, it’s not VAR that’s the problem in this country, it’s the fact that our referees are simply not good enough in the first place. Quite.

One source of major amusement (apart from the silent until in the lead home support) in the match was the apparent appointment to cult hero status of Andy Irving. Irving, who acquitted himself well during the game, was serenaded with a number of tunes, though the best one was aimed at an out of sorts Cole Palmer who, having put a shot into row z was informed that he was “just a sh*t Andy Irving”.

It was disappointing to lose such a game in such a manner. However, we can take some comfort from the nature of the performance which was delivered without fuss despite an injury list reducing things down to the proverbial “bare bones”.

Talking of which the injury list seems to be improving. A bit. It’ll be a while before Michail Antonio is seen again, though one understands that he is progressing well. He is due to be at the Olympic for the Leicester game where he will be greeted by a giant banner in his honour apparently.

Niclas Fullkrug will be ages whilst Summerville has had a setback in his recovery, which means it’s likely to be April before he resurfaces. Lucas Paqueta, who pulled up lame against Villa, may have been ill-advised to have played on with the groin strain he received. He missed the Chelsea game as a result. However, he has returned to training so may well be available for selection on Saturday.




Another who has returned to training is Jean-Clair Todibo, whose return will be most welcome, if only to give the unreliable Dinos Mavropanos a spell out of the firing line. We also bid welcome to Evan Ferguson and welcome back to James Ward-Prowse.

Ferguson had a good start to his career with Brighton & Hove Actually, having signed for the Seagulls back in 2021. However, in latter months he has been plagued with an ankle problem that eventually required him to go under the knife to resolve.

His absences saw him slip down the pecking order at the Credit Card Stadium to the extent that a move was deemed beneficial to give the player’s career a welcome boost. Now apparently recovered from his ankle problems, it is to be hoped that the player can regain the form that saw him valued (albeit by Brighton) at £100m not too long ago, though the noises coming out of Mr Potter’s office (the Potting Shed?) are to the effect that, since the player hasn’t had much pitch time of late his appearances will have to be managed.

As for Ward-Prowse, it’s an opportunity for him to prove himself to a manager who would appear to have no preconceptions as to his abilities, which did not previously appear to have been the case with Lopetegui, who clearly had no place for JWP in his plans.

Ward-Prowse had the misfortune to be dropped into a Nottingham Forest side who hit on a formula and are having one of those seasons in which everything they touch pays off. Whilst the loan arrangement that took JWP to the City Ground didn’t have a recall clause as such, it was agreed that it would be better all round to terminate the deal and bring the player back.

If selected we may well start to look dangerous at corners once more – and who, knows, he may well pick up that direct free-kick goal we’ve been waiting for ever since he arrived from Southampton.

Which brings me nicely on to the prediction. Two weeks off, performances improving, players coming back from injury and new signings (of sorts) will all be pointing towards feel-goodish factor that has been absent from the club for most of this season. Brentford won’t be pushovers by any stretch, but I think there will be enough in the tank for us to prevail.

Before I make my prediction an email has literally flooded in asking me why my bet stake has suddenly increased back to the more traditional £2.50 up from the £2 that I have been paying for most of this season. Well those of you with long enough memories will remember that, apparently, Daisy and I are to be married this summer. I don’t remember proposing but Daisy reassures me that I did and that all the financial documents I am signing are legitimate so who am I to argue.

Anyhow in order to buy the girl a suitable present with which to honour the occasion I temporarily reduced the stake for each week’s wager by 50p. After six months of this I have finally amassed enough to get the present so there’s no need for me to hold back on the weekly bet anymore. So this week the £2.50 that would have partly gone on Daisy’s present and partly on some sympathy flowers for Liverpool will instead be going on a home win. 2-1 to us Mr Winstone and hang the expense.

Enjoy the game!




When Last We met At The Olympic: Won 4-2 Premier League February 2024
We’d lost three in a row before but you wouldn’t have noticed. Bowen opened the scoring and then doubled the lead within the first 10 minutes. Maupay pulled one back but Bowen completed his hat-trick – the first of his senior career – after the break. Emerson thumped one in from the edge of the box to give us a three goal cushion, with Wissa giving the visitors a final consolation with a cured effort late on.

Referee: Darren England
Got us knocked out of the FA Cup a couple of years back when he allowed a thuggish Bristol City kick us to bits, only bothering to reach for his card when Benrhama finally got fed up after the 6th red card challenge he had been on the end of and retaliated. Incompetent and dishonest then.

Danger Man: Brian Mbuemo
14 goals in all competitions which works out at a goal every other game.

Percy and Daisy’s Brentford Fact Of The Week Type Thing
The appallingly dreadful film Green Street contains a scene in a pub where one or two of the least-convincing cockney accents since Dick Van Dyke are lubricated with a pre-match pint. Which would have made the walk to the ground interesting given that the location used was a pub called the Griffin which was one of the four pubs located at the corners of Brentford’s old Griffin Park ground.


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