What a season that was and here are my highlights which I will replay in my mind throughout the close season. Please feel free to add your own as there are so many I am sure that some have fallen through the cracks and escaped my attention:
- Appointing a new Head Coach in Marinus Dijkhuizen who seemed to tick all the boxes
- Paying a new record transfer fee for Andreas Bjelland
- The excitement at signing a potential star in Chelsea’s Josh McEachran
- Bringing in exciting young foreign prospects in Konstantin Kerschbaumer, Yoann Barbet and Andy Gogia
- Hoping that Ryan Williams might turn into our set piece secret weapon
- Buying two international strikers, Lasse Vibe and Philipp Hofmann
- Andre Gray’s brilliant goal scoring form in preseason
- Jermaine Udumaga scoring his first goal for the club in preseason against Sporting Clube Farense
- Courtney Senior and Aaron Greene impressing against Boreham Wood
- Giving Stoke City a football lesson with Gogia running them ragged
- Thinking for a few weeks that we might manage to hang onto all our stars
- The injury time comeback against Ipswich culminating in James Tarkowski’s ninety-sixth minute equaliser
- Youngsters Josh Clarke, Josh Laurent, Jermaine Udumaga and Courtney Senior all making the starting eleven in the Capital One Cup against Oxford United
- Scoring four times at Bristol City with Gray and Hofmann combining menacingly up front and Philipp Hofmann scoring a goal of true international class
- Konstantin Kerschbaumer’s back heel at Bristol City which helped set up Alan Judge’s first goal
- Sticking four goals past our former loanee Ben Hamer
- Max Colin’s eye-catching debut as a substitute at Burnley
- Lasse Vibe’s twenty-five yard curler against Reading
- Sam Saunders making his comeback from injury against Reading
- Signing Sergi Canos and Marco Djuricin on loan
- Djuricin’s coolly-taken debut goal at Leeds
- Uwe Rösler reacting to the attention of the Brentford fans at Leeds
- Goalkeeper Mark Smith making the bench at Middlesbrough
- Sergi Canos turning the game as a substitute against Preston
- Marco Djuricin’s turning his marker and scoring the winner against Preston
- The first win of the season at Griffin Park
- David Button’s perfect assist for Alan Judge’s brilliantly taken equaliser against Sheffield Wednesday
- Alan Judge hitting the bar against Sheffield Wednesday
- The perfectly timed October international break which allowed Lee Carsley to put the squad through a mini boot camp
- Beating Rotherham through two wonderful Alan Judge goals
- Switching my mobile phone back on to learn about our unexpected win at Wolves
- Our first clean sheet of the season at Wolves
- Nico Yennaris seizing his opportunity at right back after Max Colin’s injury
- Playing Charlton off the pitch after an uncomfortable first twenty minutes
- Alan Judge’s goal and assist at Charlton
- Alan McCormack hitting the underside of the bar at his old club, Charlton
- The first win over QPR for fifty years with Marco Djuricin becoming an instant Brentford legend
- Substitutes Kerschbaumer, Vibe and Hofmann all playing their part in the QPR triumph
- Lee Carsley reviving our fortunes, leading us to four consecutive wins and winning the October Manager of the Month Award
- Alan Judge winning the October Sky Bet Player of the Month Award after a series of inspirational displays
- Brentford’s exceptional first half display against Hull
- Kerschbaumer’s bending shot against the post versus Hull
- Sergi Canos’s first goal for the club against Nottingham Forest
- Philipp Hofmann’s triple ricochet ninety-sixth minute winner against Nottingham Forest
- John Swift’s Premier League class goal at Bolton
- Dean Smith’s appointment as Brentford Head Coach
- Playing MK Dons off the pitch at Griffin Park in Dean Smith’s first game
- Outplaying Fulham at Craven Cottage
- Sitting in the Hammersmith End with the Fulham fans and trying not to cheer us on
- The deafening noise made by nearly five thousand Brentford fans at Fulham
- The glorious moment when we thought that Jota had scored a deserved winner
- Josh McEachran making his Brentford debut at Cardiff and instantly looking at home in our midfield
- Jake Bidwell’s first goal for the club in his one hundred and eighty-sixth game
- Forty-five minutes of perfection against Huddersfield
- Lasse Vibe’s thunderous volley against Huddersfield after Tarkowski’s perfect chip forward
- Totally outplaying Brighton but the ball refused to go in
- Our amazing support from three thousand fans at Reading rewarded by Ryan Woods’s first goal for the club from twenty-five yards and the Goal of the Season by Sergi Canos
- Michael Hector’s second yellow card for a embarrassing dive
- Nemesis Keith Stroud sending off two opposition players this season
- Thinking that we had sneaked a point at Birmingham when Hofmann equalised late on
- Totally outplaying Middlesbrough at Griffin Park
- The second half display against Burnley – forget about the first half
- Yoann Barbet’s pass and Alan Judge’s cool finish at Preston
- THAT save by David Button at Preston which ensured our victory
- Josh McEachran selling the Leeds attack a dummy and clearing the danger in our penalty area
- Sam Saunders running at the Leeds defence before scoring
- The first five minutes at Sheffield Wednesday
- A wonder goal by Alan Judge against Derby
- Putting Wolves to the sword again
- John Swift’s two-goal performance against Wolves
- Josh McEachran’s slide rule pass to Jake Bidwell before our second goal against Wolves
- Yoann Barbet’s first goal for the club against Charlton
- The anticipation and excitement leading up to the visit to Loftus Road
- Leaving the match early to escape the humiliation on the pitch and our supporters’ behaviour off it
- Another international break, another opportunity to regroup
- International caps for Daniel O’Shaughnessy, Alan Judge and Lasse Vibe
- The relief at winning again after losing four in a row and at Vibe’s opening goal at Nottingham Forest
- Confidence returning to the squad with a wonderful first half performance against Bolton
- Nico Yennaris dominating the midfield and demonstrating his quality
- Lasse Vibe – Goal Machine, after we finally learned how to play to his strengths
- Alan McCormack and Ryan Woods ensuring that Luke Hyam finally got his just deserts at Ipswich
- Two brilliantly taken goals by Lasse Vibe at Ipswich
- Scott Hogan’s return and first goal for the club against Bristol City – another last minute equaliser
- Hogan winning us the Cardiff match with two more late goals
- Sergi Canos’s wonderful curling effort at MK Dons
- Watching Jake Bidwell’s late free kick dribble through the MK Dons defence and bounce perfectly into corner of the net
- Losing at Hull City – and not really caring as it was simply a match too far
- The first seven minutes against Fulham
- Sam Saunders’s lung-bursting run to score the first goal
- Konstantin Kerschbaumer growing into his role and his perfect through balls for three of Scott Hogan’s goals
- Totally embarrassing Fulham and comprehensively beating them
- Tom Field’s remarkably composed debut and assist against Fulham
- A twenty-one second opening goal at Huddersfield
- Putting Huddersfield to the sword – yet again
- Scott Hogan’s clinical finishing with seven goals in under two full games
- Roy Keane leaving the stadium as soon as Scott was substituted at Huddersfield
- The massive improvement in our set pieces
- The renaissance of Josh Clarke
- Youngsters James Ferry and Reece Cole making the substitutes’ bench
- Josh Bohui playing for the England Under 17 team
- Our last nine matches which netted us twenty-two points and twenty-four goals
- Becoming a real team again on and off the field with club and supporters reunited
- The influence of Dean Smith and Richard O’Kelly taking effect on the squad
- Playing beautiful pass-and-move football the Brentford way again
- Two top nine finishes in our first two years back in the Championship
- Never being in the bottom three of the league table
- Looking forward eagerly to next season and what it has to bring
- Our foreign signings developing into excellent players once they had finally adapted to the league
- Harlee Dean proving to be a real leader and reaching the two-hundred game mark for the club
- Maxime Colin and Yoann Barbet settling in so well and promising so much
- Jake Bidwell’s consistency and composure and also reaching the two-hundred game milestone
- David Button – ever-present and a massive influence
- Lewis Macleod finally getting onto the pitch, albeit briefly
- Andreas Bjelland getting close to a full recovery
- Sam Saunders and Alan McCormack earning new contracts and being a massive positive influence on their less experienced teammates
- Thinking about the goals Scott Hogan will hopefully score next season
- Everything about Alan Judge, a career year and such a wonderful player and rightly named as one of the top three players in the Championship and in the team of the season
- Ryan Woods quietly going about his business and impressing everyone
- John Swift scoring seven goals in his first real look at the Championship
- Sergi Canos – an inspiration and perfect example of how a loan player should conduct himself
- Getting the CPO verdict that helps bring the new stadium at Lionel Road even closer
- Finishing as Kings of West London and the leading London club outside the Premier League
- Mark Burridge and his Bees Player team
- Poetic justice as James Tarkowski did not receive a medal at Burnley’s trophy presentation
- Matthew Benham, Cliff Crown, Mark Devlin, Phil Giles, Rasmus Ankersen and their teams working so hard, effectively and creatively to ensure that we maintain our edge
- On a personal level, having Richard Lee and Cliff Crown do book signings and the fantastic response to and reviews of my book Continue reading