Latest Opinion

Due to his advancing years messing up his knee Preview Percy was unable to get to last week’s match. The resulting toll on his nerves means that he is going this weekend even if he has to go by ambulance. So here’s his look at Saturday’s trip to West London...

Next up we make our way across the metropolis where our hosts for what will be our last 3pm on Saturday kick-off of the season will be Brentford. There’s no engineering works in the general area though there’s plenty going on elsewhere as they do tend to pick on bank holidays so check before you leave.




So Brentford, then. They’ve only lost one of their last six which sounds great but for the fact that they haven’t actually won any of those six. They last put three points on the board on 28 February where they beat Burnley up at Turf Moor in a match that was quite frankly bonkers.

The Bees took a 3-0 lead which the Clarets reeled in only to see Damsgaaard put away a 93rd minute winner, with a harsh VAR decision denying Barnes a 99th minute equaliser.

They then drew their next five, starting with a 0-0 away at Bournemouth, 2-2 at home to Wolves, 0-0 away at Leeds, 2-2 at home to Everton and 0-0 at home to Fulham. They were last in action on Monday night when they went down 2-1 to Man Utd at the Theatre Of Tacky Marketing Slogans, despite having much of the second half.

All of this has left them in ninth place with 48 points from the 34 played so far. That’s two points shy of Bournemouth who, in seventh place, currently occupy the final European qualification spot, that being for the play-off for the Thursday Night Conference League.

Daisy informs me that they had a quiet transfer window, bringing in a couple of youngsters. !9 year-old Kaye Furo arrived from Club Brugge on a deal worth £8.7m. He’s been plying his trade in the age groups since his arrival, though he did make his first XI debut in the Cup against Macclesfield. The other arrival, Joseph Wheeler-Henry, was a loan signing, inevitably from Chelsea, who again is playing in the development squads.

Not much more to say about them really so let’s move on, shall we, to the Wild & Wacky World of Association Football. The Americans have taken time out from being the most peaceful nation on earth, everyone is saying so, to confirm that Iran will be allowed to play in the World Cup. Let’s see how far that allowance gets if they win the odd game.




Meanwhile the Dutch league faces a shambolic end to the season. They’ve discovered that Dean James of Go Ahead Eagles may have been playing whilst not eligible. Although Dutch by birth, he’s thrown his international lot in with Indonesia, which is where the problem starts.

The question is one of whether James has legally given up his Dutch citizenship. If the answer to that question is “yes” he will require work permits and the like to be able to play which, believing he is Dutch, he doesn’t possess. Which would be bad enough if it were only James involved.

However the Dutch FA have looked at this and noticed that James is not alone. In fact they issued a statement stating that, if each game involving a potentially ineligible player were to require a replay there would be another 133 matches to be played. And it would still be sorted out before Man City’s charges are dealt with.

And so to us. Saturday? Football eh? The first half was nervy but Soucek’s trademark goal was merited. Then we did what we do far too much of for my liking when we go ahead: we sat back. The equaliser was coming - and come it did.

That combined with the news that Tottenham had scraped into a lead at Molineaux did not do much for the blood pressure hereabouts. Thankfully the goal woke us up a bit and Tug was, once more, the man on the spot, carefully finishing when it would have been easy to blast the ball over the bar.

Of course there was some dreadful refereeing to factor into the match. Tottenham fans were channelling their inner tinfoil hat-wearing conspiracy theory-susceptible brainlets, claiming that Atwell’s failure to award a penalty for Fernandes’s handball was a ploy to get them relegated. This ignored several facts.




Firstly the fact that the referee involved was Stuart Atwell who can't go more than 20 minutes without getting something major wrong. Secondly, if Atwell had had one billionth of a braincell on active duty on Saturday, Pickford would have been sent off for his disgusting challenge on Taty, and thirdly, Tottenham are quite capable of getting themselves relegated without help from PGMOL.

They are right about one thing, mind: pretty much everyone does want them down - but that’s just good sense.

We have a fully-fit-but-for-Fabianski squad from which to select, the good news being that after a less than scintillating return to the ranks at Palace, Summerville seemed to have his got his mojo back – no fewer than five Everton players picking up yellows for fouling him. Something that Tottenham seem to have ignored in their complaints about Atwell.

So we can look at an unchanged starting XI with Nuno apparently having alighted on KWP for his first choice in the right back slot.

And so on we move to the prediction, then. Well firstly let’s not fuss about what is happening elsewhere. Let’s just get our own house in order. Their results haven’t been great and they have doubts about a few players, including Jordan Henderson, whose continuing England career is about as inexplicable as the Trump Presidency. They looked ok on Monday night but recent form has been patchy.

So with that in mind I’m going to put us down for an away win to bank the points lest we get Anthony Taylor some time over the next couple of weeks. So Mr Winstone, please take the £2.50 that I was going to spend on my bid for the job of Club Chief Executive, a role that appears to have gone, for the time being, and place it on a wager for us to prevail by two goals to one.

Enjoy the game!




When last we met at the Vacuum Cleaner: Drew 1-1 (Premier League September 2024)

They were going through a spell of 1st minute goals and this match continued the run with Moan Utd-bound Mbuema scoring after 37 seconds. Both sides had chances before Soucek equalised just shy of the hour.

Referee: Craig Pawson

A relatively quick return to handling one of our games after his appearance in the cup match against Leeds. His selection worries me. Not because of the standard of his refereeing – though lord knows that’s nothing to write home about. No, I’m worried because each game we go without Anthony Taylor being in charge means that he is more likely to be the man in the middle when we play Arsenal, and given his appalling record of favouring so-called top 6 sides against us with penalties that no honest referee should give.

Danger Man: Igor Thiago

24 in 34 across all competitions this season is a good rate of return by anyone’s standards.

Percy & Daisy’s Brentford Fact Of The Week Type Thing

Long before it was demolished, Brentford could have lost their old Griffin Park ground to a local rival. Back in 1967 Jim Gregory put in an offer of £250k for Griffin Park with a view to moving his QPR team in. At that time one of QPR’s stands was not so much a stand as a mud bank. Quite where Brentford were supposed to go if the deal had gone through lord alone knows. However having been told to sling his hook Gregory elected to build a stand in Shepherd’s Bush instead.

* Like to share your thoughts on this article? Please visit the KUMB Forum to leave a comment.

* Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the highlighted author/s and do not necessarily represent or reflect the official policy or position of KUMB.com.